Most of the people are of the belief that strike rate doesn’t matter a lot in Test cricket, but the batsmen, who score at a high strike rate in Test matches, give their team that much of extra time to dismiss the opposition twice which is all that you need to win a Test match.
Out of all the batsmen who have scored 5000 or more runs in Test match cricket, here are the 5 batsmen with the highest strike rate –
#1 Virender Sehwag (Strike rate – 82.23):
Since Sehwag was an opener, he was up against the moving ball most of the time, but he still managed to score runs at a good tempo for India and he did that over 104 Test matches which was unbelievable.
Sehwag finished his Test career with a total of 8586 runs which he scored at an average of 49.34 and a strike rate of 82.23.
#2 Adam Gilchrist (Strike rate – 81.95):
Adam Gilchrist was a similar sort of batsman as Sehwag, but his batting position in the Australian Test team was no. 7. So, most of the time, he was batting in a scenario where the bowlers were tired and the ball was a little bit old. And that’s where he used to go hard at the opposition and used to take the game away from them.
Gilchrist scored 5570 runs in 96 Test matches for Australia at an average of 47.60 and a strike rate of 81.95.
#3 Kapil Dev (Strike rate – 80.91):
When we talk about Kapil Dev, the first thing which comes to our mind is his ability to swing the ball away from the right-handers and the fact that he was the first Indian fast bowler to cross the tally of 400 wickets in Test cricket.
But while he was wonderful with the ball, Kapil was very efficient with the bat as well. The impact that he made batting at no. 7 for India was incredible.
Kapil maintained a strike rate of more than 80 over his 16-year long Test career.
#4 David Warner (Strike rate – 72.85):
David Warner is someone who approaches the Test match batting pretty much like Sehwag. He also bats at the top of the order and mostly finds himself in testing circumstances, but he doesn’t quite go into his shell.
Despite batting relatively freely against the new ball, Warner has still been able to be fairly consistent in Test cricket. His average in Test cricket is 48.94, to go with his strike rate of 72.85.
#5 Vivian Richards (Strike rate – 70.19):
Vivian Richards is the only batsman in this list who has a Test batting average of more than 50 and a Test batting strike rate of more than 70. The former West Indies captain was outstandingly dominant against all types of bowling in all conditions.
Richards played 121 Test matches for West Indies between 1974 and 1991 and scored 8540 runs with 24 hundreds and 45 fifties.
