Melbourne: Young Indian opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal is looking good in the ongoing fourth Test against Australia, which is currently underway at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The 22-year-old left-handed batter has so far scored 38 runs from 70 balls. He would like to convert his good start into a big score and help India keep alive its chances of winning the Boxing Day Test against Australia for the third series in a row.
By crossing the 11-run mark on Friday, December 27, during the second session of the ongoing second day’s play, Jaiswal leapfrogged Virat Kohli in an elite list of Indian batters. Jaiswal, who made his Test debut for India in July 2023 against the West Indies in Roseau, broke Kohli’s record of scoring 1322 Test runs in a calendar year for India.
Kohli amassed a total of 1322 runs in 13 Test matches for India in 2018. Jaiswal, who scored 161 runs in the second innings of the Perth Test against Australia, has more than 1350 runs to his name in 15 Tests played so far in 2024.
In the list of batters with the most Test runs in a calendar year for India, Jaiswal now only trails Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, and Rahul Dravid.
Tendulkar, who is the all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket, also holds the record for scoring the most Test runs in a calendar year for India. He played 14 Tests for India in 2010, and with the help of seven centuries and five fifties, scored 1562 runs.
If Jaiswal manages to score seven more runs in the ongoing match, then he will also overtake Rahul Dravid. Dravid, who served as India captain and also as head coach in the past, scored 1357 runs in 16 Tests for India in 2002.
Most Test runs in a calendar year for India
Sachin Tendulkar – 1562 runs in 2010
Virender Sehwag – 1462 runs in 2008
Virender Sehwag – 1422 runs in 2010
Sunil Gavaskar – 1407 runs in 1979
Sachin Tendulkar – 1392 runs in 2002.
Gundappa Viswanath – 1388 runs in 1979
Rahul Dravid – 1357 runs in 2002
Yashasvi Jaiswal – 1350 runs in 2024*
Virat Kohli – 1322 runs in 2018
Sunil Gavaskar – 1310 runs in 1983
Virat Kohli – 1215 runs in 2016
The overall record of scoring the most Test runs in a calendar year is in the name of former Pakistani batter Mohammad Yousuf, who amassed a total of 1788 runs in 11 matches for the Pakistan team in 2006. A total of three batters—Yousuf, Viv Richards (1710 runs), and Root (1708)—have only managed to score more than 1700 runs in a calendar year in Tests.
Jaiswal sits at the No. 5 position in the ICC Test batter’s ranking, and he needs 257 more runs in the ongoing match to go past Root’s tally of 1556 runs and become the leading run scorer in Test cricket in 2024.
