The year 2020 has finally ended, and it is time to look forward to 2021. After every year ends, we take a look at the year that just ended. Many cricket records are considered for a calendar year and so it is important to check who has scored the most number of runs in a year in different formats.
Talking about scoring runs, there are a few batsmen who have scored more than 1000 runs in Test cricket in a calendar year multiple times. Scoring 1000+ Test runs shows the consistency of a player, and it is not easy to maintain consistency. So, let’s have a look at the four players who have scored 1000+ Test runs for the most number of times in a calendar year.
Jacques Kallis – 5 times
Jacques Kallis who is one of the greatest all-rounders to have played the game has a phenomenal batting record. He has scored more than 13,000 runs with 45 centuries to his name. Kallis scored more than 1000 runs in a calendar year five times.
He first achieved this feat in 2001 when he scored 1120 runs in 13 Test matches. 2004 was his best year in Test cricket as he scored 1288 runs at an average of 80.5. He backed it up with another great year in 2005 as he scored 1011 runs. He scored 1210 runs in 2007 and 1198 runs in 2010. Kallis retired from Test cricket in 2013, and he played his last Test against India.
Brian Lara – 5 times
Brian Lara who holds the record for the highest ever Test score of 400* has scored more than 1000 runs five times in a calendar year in his international career. He just missed out on 1000 runs in 1994 as he scored 996 runs in that year. But in the next year, he went beyond that as he scored 1222 runs at an average of 67.89.
The next time he scored more than 1000 runs was in 2001 when he scored 1151 runs. He had a dream run in 2003, 2004, and 2005 as he scored 1344, 1178, and 1110 runs respectively. Lara scored more than 1000 runs in three consecutive calendar years.
Alastair Cook – 5 times
Alastair Cook who retired from Test cricket in 2018 has scored more than 12,000 runs as an opener which is not an easy task. Just like Jacques Kallis and Brian Lara, the English opener too has scored more than 1000 Test runs in a calendar year five times. Cook scored 1013 runs in his debut year in 2006.
He had a couple of years in which he crossed 900 runs but couldn’t go past 1000. In 2010 and 2012, he went onto score more than 1200 runs. He had his best year in 2015 as he scored 1364 runs at an average of 54.56. In 2017, he scored 1270 runs which was his last year of 1000+ test runs. He retired in 2018 in the last Test of the India-England Test series.
Sachin Tendulkar – 6 times
Sachin Tendulkar who is arguably the greatest batsmen to have played the game has gone past all the others as he scored more than 1000 runs in a calendar year six times. The Little Master started his career in 1989 but his first year with 1000 runs came in 1997 where he scored exactly 1000 runs.
In 1999, he scored 1088 runs, and then in 2001 and 2002, he had back-to-back great years as he scored 1003 and 1392 runs respectively. In 2010, he scored 1063 runs at an average of 48.32. But his best year in Test cricket came in 2010 when he was 37 years old as he scored 1562 runs at an average of 78.10. His performances started to decline in 2012 and so the Little Master retired in 2013 against the West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium.
