Stats: Highest run scorers for each team in Test cricket

It took Younis Khan 102 test matches to achieve the huge feat

The long-standing record of Javed Miandad as the highest run scorer for Pakistan in Tests has finally been broken by Younis Khan, after the 37-year-old hit a six off England’s Moeen Ali in a test match at Abu Dhabi on October 13, 2015. It is a remarkable achievement by the Pakistani batsman, as no one in the last three decades could surpass the veteran’s record.

Javed Miandad became Pakistan’s highest run-getter in Tests on October 20, 1985, when he scored his 5059th test run to go past Zaheer Abbas. He ended his career in 1996 with a record 8832 runs.

In the past, only two other Pakistani batsmen came close to breaking Miandad’s record, but both failed to do so. Inzamam-ul-Haq missed the record by just three runs in his last match for his country, getting stumped by the keeper after trying to go for a six to reach the landmark. He is joined by Mohammad Yousuf, whose career ended with him scoring 7530 runs. 

In last four months, this is the third instance of a player breaking the record of the highest Test runs for his country.

On May 30, 2015, Alastair Cook broke the long-standing record of Graham Gooch to become the highest run-getter for England in Tests and a couple of weeks later on June 13, Tamim Iqbal went past Habibul Bashar’s record of most Test runs for Bangladesh.

So on this occasion, let’s see the highest run-getters for each Test team.

Leading run scorers for each team

Team	Batsman	Runs	Matches	Innings	Average	100s	50s	Highest Score
Australia	Ricky Ponting	13378	168	287	51.85	41	62	257
Bangladesh	Tamim Iqbal	3118**	42	80	39.46	7	18	206
England	Alastair Cook	9330**	120	213	46.41	27	44	294
India	Sachin Tendulkar	15921	200	329	53.78	51	68	248*
New Zealand	Stephen Fleming	7172	111	189	40.06	9	46	274*
Pakistan	Younis Khan	8897**	102	182	52.67	30	29	313
South Africa	Jacques Kallis	13289	166	280	55.37	45	58	224
Sri Lanka	Kumar Sangakkara	12400	134	233	57.40	38	52	319
West Indies	Brian Lara	11953	131	232	52.88	34	48	400*
Zimbabwe	Andy Flower	4794	63	112	51.54	12	27	232*

** still active

• Only Bangladesh, England and Pakistan have their highest run-getter playing at present.
• Kumar Sangakkara recently retired from Tests for Sri Lanka.
• Bangladesh’s highest run-getter has the lowest aggregate of all the other batsman.
• New Zealand’s highest run-getter has the lowest aggregate among the top eight Test teams.
• The highest run scorer’s average is less than 50 for Bangladesh, New Zealand and England

Let’s also see the same for other teams and with all the details.

Sachin Tendulkar’s 15921 runs makes him the highest run-getter for test team

Highest run-getter and the previous highest run-getter for each team

Team	Highest run scorer	Previous record holder	Runs	Date of Record
Australia	Ricky Ponting	Allan Border	11174	30 July 2009
Bangladesh	Tamim Iqbal	Habibul Bashar	3026	13 June 2015
England	Alastair Cook	Graham Gooch	8900	30 May 2015
India	Sachin Tendulkar	Sunil Gavaskar	10122	28 March 2015
New Zealand	Stephen Fleming	Martin Crowe	5444	26 October 2004
Pakistan	Younish Khan	Javed Miandad	8832	13 October 2015
South Africa	Jacques Kallis	Gary Kirsten	7289	30 April 2005
Sri Lanka	Kumar Sangakkara	Mahela Jayawardene	11493	18 July 2014
West Indies	Brian Lara	Viv Richards	8540	13 November 2003
Zimbabwe	Andy Flower	Grant Flower	2044	10 December 1998

• For Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, the previous record holder hadn’t retired when the record was broken.
• Andy Flower is now the longest holder for the record of highest number of runs scored for any team, holding on to the record since 1998. For all other teams, the record was broken after 2000.
• Two teams can have new record holders in a year or so – Brendon McCullum (6008) can go past Stephen Fleming (7172) for New Zealand and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (11867) can surpass Brian Lara (11912) for West Indies if he gets to play even one match!

*All statistics as of October 15, 2015