Steve Smith becomes fastest player to 7000 Test runs

Former Australian skipper Steve Smith became the fastest man on the planet to get to 7000 Test runs, when he achieved the feat in the day night Test match against Pakistan, which is being held at the Adelaide Oval. Smith took 126 innings to cross the run-mark, breaking Wally Hammond's long-standing 73-year record. The Englishman had set the record in 1946, when he had got to 7000 Test runs in 131 innings.

Smith also moved past Don Bradman's tally of 6996 runs to become Australia's 11th highest Test run scorer. Bradman needed only 52 Tests to score as many runs, while it took Smith 70 Tests to surpass the legend.

The 30-year old got to the feat when he took a single off Muhammad Musa in the second Test between the two nations. India's Virender Sehwag is the third fastest to the 7000-run mark in the longest format.

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Smith had made waves earlier this year in the Ashes against England when he scored 774 runs in just seven innings and was subsequently termed as the greatest batsman after Bradman. He had the chance to overtake both Bradman and Hammond in the first Test at Brisbane too but he was dismissed for 4.

Smith will now be looking to surpass Greg Chappell's record of 7110 runs but has a huge task ahead of him if he aims to become Australia's leading run-scorer in Tests. Ricky Ponting, with 13378 runs leads the run-charts currently.