Top 10 batsmen with more than 5000 runs scored In Test matches won
Stats are a good measure of quantity – quantity of runs, the quantity of innings played and quantity of big knocks. However, they rarely tell you the quality of an innings, for example, of the hard-fought 30 on a seaming track that probably saved the match for your team.This argument rarely holds for greats who have had long careers.
Over a protracted career, things almost always even out, giving us a pattern. Those patterns offer great insights – the batsmen who score under pressure in the 4th innings, the batsmen who dominate from the start and score big runs in the first innings to set up matches for their team and the batsmen whose runs almost always influence big wins.
In this piece, we are going to look at some of the batsmen who have scored tons of runs in winning causes for their teams. Mind you, some of these batsmen like Ricky Ponting need to share credit for some of those runs with their incredible teams that helped win more games than lose. Others like Sachin Tendulkar have been seminal in the sense that when they scored big runs, their teams tended to win more often.
Stats courtesy: Cricinfo
Rahul Dravid – 5131 runs
Three Indians hold the record for most runs in drawn Test matches. Dravid comes third behind Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar with 5379 runs. The Wall, who also holds the record, for most balls faced in Test cricket, an astounding 31258 in 286 innings, Dravid scored 5131 runs in 56 Test wins at an impressive average close to 66 with 15 centuries.
Overall, Dravid has 13288 runs in 164 Tests at an average of 52.31 runs with 36 centuries. A massive number of Dravid’s centuries have come in lone-hand efforts saving matches for India in tough conditions. 3757 of the 5131 runs have come in the first and second innings of Tests with 12 centuries where his average touches 72.25.