Batting Records

Top 10: Fastest to 1000 Runs as Opener in Test Cricket

The opening batters play a pivotal role in Test cricket, as they can make or break the team’s innings. However, opening the batting is not easy, as the openers need to show resilience while dealing with the new red ball.

Few openers embrace this challenge early in their careers, displaying their fondness for scoring runs against the best bowling attacks. In that process, some openers manage to strike off major milestones in record innings.

On that note, this article lists the top 10 fastest openers to 1000 runs in the Test format.

Fastest to 1000 Runs as Opener in Test

PlayerInnings to 1000 Runs as OpenerTime Taken
Herbert Sutcliffe (ENG)130y 258d
Leonard Hutton (ENG)161y 363d
Yashasvi Jaiswal (IND)160y 239d
Graeme Smith (SA)171y 145d
Herbie Collins (AUS)184y 2d
Mark Taylor (AUS)180y 316d
Aiden Markram (SA)180y 183d
Andrew Strauss (ENG)190y 227d
Mayank Agarwal (IND)191y 357d
Sherwin Campbell (WI)201y 293d

Key Insights

13: Herbert Sutcliffe became the fastest opener to reach 1000 Test runs. The England opener took 13 innings to surpass the landmark. Moreover, Sutcliffe is overall the fastest batter to score 1000 runs in the red-ball format.

183: The number of days taken by Aiden Markram to cross 1000 Test runs. The South African opener is the fastest to 1000 runs in terms of time taken. Markram made his Test debut on September 28, 2017 and breached the 1000-run mark on March 30, 2018.

6: There are over 20 opening batters who have slammed 1000 Test runs in 22 or fewer innings, with 6 of them being from Australia.

4: When Graeme Smith came to bat in his 17th Test innings, he was 1 run short of scoring 1000 runs. He took his 1000th run on the first ball of the innings, but he didn’t stop there and went on to hammer 259 runs off 370 balls against England. 

This was his 4th Test hundred, which he successfully converted into his 4th 150+ score. Smith is the only batter to convert first 4 Test hundreds to 150+ scores. (You can read more about Smith’s extraordinary feat here.)

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