Most Test runs in a calendar year: The English captain has a realistic chance of going past former Pakistani batsman’s world record.
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Having scored 1,398 runs in 11 Tests at an average of 69.90 with the help of six centuries and a half-century, England Test captain Joe Root is in the middle of a phenomenal run as a batsman.
Root, who has scored more than three times the Test runs scored by England’s second-highest run-scorer in the last 12 months, still has five Tests (including two home Tests) to play this year and it would be disappointing if the right-hand batsman doesn’t break the record for Most Test runs in a calendar year.
Amazing character to fight back from a disappointing defeat – so proud of the team! Great to score a hundred on my home ground, two big Tests left starting at the Oval next week 🏴 pic.twitter.com/ABt7r11wdj
— Joe Root (@root66) August 28, 2021
It is worth mentioning that the aforementioned record currently lies with former Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf, who had scored 1,788 runs in just 11 Tests at a mind-blowing average of 99.33. Having achieved the feat one and a half decade ago in 2006, Yousuf had scored nine centuries and three half-centuries back in the day.
While Root needs 391 more runs to go past Yousuf, he first needs 80 more runs to break his own record of 2016. Given Root’s remarkable form, it might seem that this is his best-ever year in Test cricket but it isn’t the case as he had amassed 1,477 runs in 17 Tests at an average of 49.23 including three centuries and 10 half-centuries half-a-decade ago.
Another four runs will aid Root in becoming the highest Test run-scorer in a calendar year among English batsmen as he will surpass former England captain Michael Vaughan’s record (1,481 runs at an average of 61.70) set in 2002.
Most Test runs in a calendar year
| Player | Year | Matches | Innings | Runs | HS | Average | SR | 100 | 50 |
| Mohammad Yousuf | 2006 | 11 | 19 | 1,788 | 202 | 99.33 | 62.64 | 9 | 3 |
| Sir Vivian Richards | 1976 | 11 | 19 | 1,710 | 291 | 90 | 72.85* | 7 | 5 |
| Graeme Smith | 2008 | 15 | 25 | 1,656 | 232 | 72 | 65.81 | 6 | 6 |
| Michael Clarke | 2012 | 11 | 11 | 1,595 | 329* | 106.33 | 65.96 | 5 | 3 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 2010 | 14 | 23 | 1,562 | 214 | 78.1 | 55.9 | 7 | 5 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 1979 | 18 | 27 | 1,555 | 221 | 59.8 | 47.43* | 5 | 8 |
| Ricky Ponting | 2005 | 15 | 28 | 1,544 | 207 | 67.13 | 61.31 | 6 | 6 |
| Ricky Ponting | 2003 | 11 | 18 | 1,503 | 257 | 100.2 | 60.26 | 6 | 4 |
| Kumar Sangakkara | 2014 | 12 | 22 | 1,493 | 319 | 71.09 | 55.15 | 4 | 9 |
| Michael Vaughan | 2002 | 14 | 26 | 1,481 | 197 | 61.7 | 61.14 | 6 | 2 |
