On Monday, December 30, emerging Indian opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal’s name was stamped in an elite list by joining legendary cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, and Virender Sehwag as he became the fourth Indian
The 23-year-old left-handed batter on Monday became only the fourth Indian to score more than 1400 Test runs in a calendar year. The feat was achieved on the fifth day’s play of the current fourth India-Australia Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
This young cricketer from Mumbai passed the hurdle of getting into the Indian side by throwing up mountainous runs in domestic cricket and has thus far in 2024 scored three hundreds and eight fifties.
The record for most Test runs scored in a calendar year for India belongs to Tendulkar. The all-time leading run-scorer in Test cricket cracked 1562 runs from 14 matches played in 2010. He is followed by Sehwag, who finished with 1462 runs in 2008 and 1422 runs in 2010. On both occasions, he played 14 matches. Sehwag is the only Indian cricketer to have crossed the 1400-run mark in a calendar year in Tests more than once.
The legendary Gavaskar, who first breached the 10,000-run barrier in Test cricket, also bashed 1407 runs for Team India in 1979.
Jaiswal, who is the highest-ranked Test batter for India, will be instrumental for them while chasing 340 runs against Australia at the MCG. He is looking forward to ending this memorable year on a high note and eyeing the Tendulkar record of creating the most Test runs for India in a calendar year.
The all-time Test cricket record for scoring the highest runs in a calendar year is captured by the name of former Pakistani batter Mohammad Yousuf. He played 11 matches for the Pakistan team in 2006, scoring a whopping 1788 runs.
Among the list of most Test runs in 2024, this young batter is only second to the world number one Test batter, Joe Root. England’s former Test captain, this year, played 17 matches and accumulated 1556 runs.