Yes, there have been a number of later bloomers in international cricket, but usually, a batsman is supposed to be approaching his peak or in his peak at the age of 30. And at the top of his game, he’s an asset to his side, and his experience helps him perform well until his mid-30s, after which the decline is expected.
There have been a few giants of the game who have ridden of the dreamy highs of international cricket even before turning 30. There have been only 9 batsmen in the history of the game who have scored 15,000 runs before their 30th birthday.
In this article, we look at the top 3 batsmen who scored the most runs before turning 30:
Sachin Tendulkar
There is no surprise on who is at the top of the list: Sachin Tendulkar, the fan-hailed ‘God of Cricket’. Tendulkar made his debut in international cricket as a 16-year-old in 1989.
He hit his maiden Test century in less than a year’s time, but couldn’t hit another for the next two years, and his maiden ODI century came in 1994. But then began an incredible run of form that only had one blip in 2004-07 before the Master Blaster attained another peak in 2010 and 2011, with him finally fulfilling his dream and that of a billion others of lifting the World Cup trophy.
Before Tendulkar turned 30, the right-hander had amassed a whopping 22604 international runs along with 70 centuries. Despite ageing and his body demanding rest, in the next 9 years, Tendulkar scored over 11,000 international runs before calling his time in 2013.
Virat Kohli
It is again of very little surprise that Virat Kohli follows Tendulkar in this list. Soon after Kohli led India to victory in the u-19 World Cup in 2008, he got to make his ODI debut; 2 years later, a T20I and a year later a Test debut followed.
In 3-4 years’ time, Kohli became KING KOHLI, plundering hundreds, winning games, acing run-chases for fun across teams and conditions. And it didn’t take long for pundits to name him the guy who’d break Tendulkar’s record. Kohli had attained an incredible peak in 2016 when everything he touched turned to gold, with his individual brilliance across all three formats stunning the world.
By the age of 30, in 2019, Kohli had recorded 21036 runs – only the second batsman to score over 20,000 international runs at that age – with 69 centuries at a splendid average of 57, much higher than Tendulkar’s 47 at the point in his career.
However, after that Kohli’s form suffered a dip, coinciding with the covid-forced break and the bio-bubble fatigue forcing him and other players to take rest regularly. Kohli has made a little over 3000 international runs in the last three years.
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting made his Test and ODI debut in 1995, aged 21 and was an instant success. A 3-time ODI World Cup winner and twice the captain, a multiple-time Ashes winner, Ricky Ponting is revered as one of the finest cricket captains and one of the greatest batsmen.
By the time Ponting turned 30, that is in the first 10 years of his international career, the right-hander had aggregated 16573 international runs and had hit 43 tons.
Ponting is currently the third-highest international run-scorer with 27483 international runs.
