Stats: Most runs by a batsman in a calendar year for India
Despite seemingly having a monopoly on most batting records when it comes to cricket, there are quite a few records that Sachin Tendulkar is not the proud owner of. One such record is that of the Indian batsman with the most runs in a calendar year, which currently belongs to Rahul Dravid.
In 1999, Rahul Dravid scored 2,626 runs across Tests and ODIs at an average of 46.89 thereby breaking the world record of most runs in a calendar year in international at the time. That record stood for four more years before Ricky Ponting broke it in 2003 and that has since then surpassed four more times.
Although Dravid’s tally is only good enough for sixth on the all-time list, as far as Indians are concerned he is top with Virat Kohli in second place with 2,595 runs and Sourav Ganguly in third place with 2,580 runs in the same year as Dravid.
Extra Cover: Stats: Most runs in international cricket across all formats in 2016
Courtesy of his career-best Test score in the first innings of the fourth Test between India and England at Mumbai, Virat Kohli ended 2016 with 2,595 runs in international cricket across all formats. With an average of nearly 90 in the calendar year, Kohli has the best average of anyone in this by some distance.
Virat Kohli had the opportunity to break Rahul Dravid’s record and claim the title of being the Indian batsman to have the most number of runs in a calendar year all to himself, having already bettered his previous personal-best in the ongoing Test series but fell just short.
In the top ten, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and now Virat Kohli, all feature twice while the other two players to feature, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, scored their runs in the same year, as part of an opening partnership that simply dominated the calendar year. did
Among the top ten, there is an even split amongst the players who scored their runs before the advent of T20Is and there was only two formats (Tests and ODIs) and those that did after it was introduced more than a decade ago. Five of the top ten came before while five came after.
What is more interesting is the domination of players who batted in the top four. Apart from Sourav Ganguly, who batted in the middle order, all the players on this list are batsmen who batted in the top four in all formats. Although Ganguly batted in the middle-order in Tests, he did open in ODIs and that only highlights the volume of runs scored by India’s top-order over the years.
Here is the list of Indian batsmen who have scored the most runs in a calendar year across all formats:
Most runs in a calendar year for India
| No | Batsman | Matches | Runs | Average | Year |
| 1 | Rahul Dravid | 53 | 2,626 | 46.89 | 1999 |
| 2 | Virat Kohli | 36 | 2,595 | 86.50 | 2016 |
| 2 | Sourav Ganguly | 51 | 2,580 | 47.77 | 1999 |
| 4 | Sachin Tendulkar | 39 | 2,541 | 68.67 | 1998 |
| 5 | Virender Sehwag | 33 | 2,355 | 52.33 | 2008 |
| 6 | Sourav Ganguly | 42 | 2,346 | 51.00 | 2007 |
| 7 | Virat Kohli | 38 | 2,286 | 55.75 | 2014 |
| 8 | Rahul Dravid | 40 | 2,270 | 54.04 | 2002 |
| 9 | Gautam Gambhir | 36 | 2,262 | 55.17 | 2008 |
| 10 | Sachin Tendulkar | 40 | 2,234 | 49.64 | 1996 |
NOTE: This was last updated at the end of the India and England Test series.
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