Sachin Tendulkar stands at the summit of batting records in international cricket as the only batter in the history of the game to notch up 100 international tons, and remains the leading run-scorer in ODIs and Tests.
There are several batters who have also achieved major batting milestones in the game. But, only 8 batters in total have attained the greatness of raising more than 50 international centuries.
In this article, we look at the top 5 batsmen who were the fastest to 50 international hundreds:
Brian Lara
Among the 8 batters with over 50 international centuries, Brian Lara has the least – 53. However, the West Indian prince is the 5th quickest of them. Lara took 465 innings to score 50 hundreds and is at no.5 in the list.
Lara hit 19 ODI tons and 34 Test centuries, out of which one – the knock of 400* vs England – still remains the highest individual Test score in Test cricket.
Ricky Ponting
Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting went toe to toe with the likes of Lara and Tendulkar in their era. The 3-time World Cup winner and a multiple-time Ashes winner, Ricky Ponting cracked 71 international centuries – the third-most.
Known as “Punter”, Ponting needed 418 innings to score 50 centuries in international cricket.
Sachin Tendulkar
Tendulkar’s name is third in this list, and it is not a surprise: Tendulkar started off his India career at the age of 16 in 1989, and not took more than two years to finally get to his first international century. And then it was in 1996 that he was promoted to open the batting in ODIs. He got on a roll and there was no looking back as he amassed over 34000 runs and 100 centuries, although he managed just one ton in his last two years in international cricket.
Tendulkar took 376 innings to reach 50 international centuries mark.
Hashim Amla
Hashim Amla often goes underrated whenever fans talk of the greats of the game. But Amla is South Africa’s all-time third-highest run-scorer and his 55 international tons are the second-most by a Protea batter.
Amla took 348 innings to register 50 centuries for South Africa.
Virat Kohli
No surprises here: Virat Kohli, the modern-day great, and arguably the greatest all-format batter, has recorded 73 international centuries so far, and is only behind Tendulkar.
Kohli took 348 innings to score 50 international tons for India. But Kohli’s effort – in terms of innings – is a better one than Amla’s because he played a significant number of T20Is as well, where a batter doesn’t get as good an opportunity to score a century as in ODIs.
