To a significant extent, the position of the batsman is regarded as the most important one in the game of cricket. The score of 100 runs scored by a player in a single match is referred to as the century for that particular match. The top-order batsmen get to face more balls, giving them a greater opportunity to score a century. This gives them a greater probability of reaching that milestone.
Most Career Runs
In the 90s and 80s, cricket fans remembered two statistical landmarks. Sunil Gavaskar‘s 10,122 Test runs and West Indies veteran Desmond Haynes‘ 8648 ODI runs were milestones. Allan Border broke that record in the early 1990s and scored 11,174 Test runs. However, Haynes’ ODI record was broken seven years after his retirement. However, breaking the record opened the floodgates to raising the bar.
23 players have reached 8,648 since Haynes’ tally. 14 have scored more than 10,000 runs. In 2020, Chris Gayle and Brian Lara both achieved 10,000 runs, surpassing Haynes’ total. At the time, 10,000 ODI runs were the new standard. But for one person, he pushed the impossible and set records that stand today.
| Runs | Player | Team | Record Held Until | Duration of Record |
| 18,426 | Sachin Tendulkar | India | Current | 22 Year, 56 Days |
While playing against Australia in Indore in 2001, Sachin Tendulkar made a century and became the first player to reach 10,000 runs in ODIs. Throughout his 24-year career, Tendulkar scored 18,426 runs at an average of 44, including 49 hundreds and 96 half-centuries. No other player in history has ever amassed such a staggering total. With a 4000-run gap separating him and his nearest competitor, Tendulkar was truly unparalleled. Virat Kohli is currently on pace to surpass Tendulkar’s century and run totals.
With Tendulkar at the helm, the ODI record books are littered with firsts: 11,000, 12,000, 13,000, 14,000, 15,000, 16,000, 17,000, and 18,000. With 14,234 and 13,704 runs, respectively, Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara and Australia’s Ricky Ponting come in at second and third. Surprisingly, this upward trend has affected even the medians.
An average above 40 during the time of Tendulkar and Sangakkara was unheard of. However, Kohli has an average of around 60 in the current era. Dhoni finished his career with a batting average higher than 50. Haynes’ lifetime average was 41 when he retired.
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