The beauty of Test cricket lies in the skills, technique, resilience, and character shown by a player. After grinding hard in the field, if a player reaches a certain milestone, it puts them on cloud nine.
Having said that, a batter scoring the highest score is a significant achievement, given how tough it is to score runs in the Test format. To bring up big scores, batters need to stay longer on the pitch.
A few prominent batters notched up high scores while coming to bat at particular positions. Here are the highest individual scores accumulated by batters at each batting position in Test cricket.
Highest Scores at Each Batting Position in Test
| Position/No. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opener | Matthew Hayden – 380 | Leonard Hutton – 364 | Sanath Jayasuriya – 340 | Hanif Mohammad – 337 | David Warner – 335* |
| No. 3 | Brian Lara – 400* | Brian Lara – 375 | Garry Sobers – 365* | Wally Hammond – 336* | Don Bradman – 334 |
| No. 4 | Mahela Jayawardene – 374 | Inzamam-ul-Haq – 329 | Bob Cowper – 307 | Martin Crowe – 299 | Ross Taylor – 290 |
| No. 5 | Michael Clarke – 329* | Don Bradman – 304 | Karun Nair – 303* | Brendon McCullum – 302 | Tip Foster – 287 |
| No. 6 | Ben Stokes – 258 | Doug Walters – 250 | Don Bradman – 234 | MS Dhoni – 224 | AB de Villiers – 217* |
| No. 7 | Don Bradman – 270 | Denis Atkinson – 219 | Adam Gilchrist – 204* | Jack Ryder – 201* | Brendon McCullum – 185 |
| No. 8 | Wasim Akram – 257* | Imtiaz Ahmed – 209 | Jason Holder – 202* | Kamran Akmal – 154 | Mahmudullah – 150* |
| No. 9 | Ian Smith – 173 | Stuart Broad – 169 | Clem Hill – 160 | Asif Iqbal – 146 | Daniel Vettori – 137* |
| No. 10 | Walter Read – 117 | Abul Hasan – 113 | Pat Symcox – 108 | Reggie Duff – 104 | Sarfraz Nawaz – 90 |
| No. 11 | Ashton Agar – 98 | Tino Best – 95 | James Anderson – 81 | Zaheer Khan – 75 | Richard Collinge – 68* |
Key Insights
2: Brian Lara is the only player to accumulate 2 350-plus scores in Test cricket. The Windies’ legendary batter amassed both scores while batting at No. 3 against England almost 10 years apart. Now, both scores occupy the top 2 spots in the No. 3 batting position.
400: One of those knocks is an unbeaten 400, which Lara scored in 2004 by rewriting the history books. Lara’s 400 is the highest-ever individual score in the Test format, irrespective of batting position.
380: Five months before Lara came all guns blazing, Matthew Hayden hammered 380 runs against Zimbabwe in October 2003. Hayden’s knock was the highest then, though it remains the highest by an opener in the longest format.
300: Apart from Lara, Don Bradman, Virender Sehwag, and Chris Gayle have notched up 2 triple centuries each in Tests. Moreover, Bradman and Sehwag also have the most 290+ scores, with 3 each to their names.
11: Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara whacked 11 Test double centuries while batting at No. 3 — the most double hundreds at a particular position. While Bradman has the most double tons in the red-ball format (12), however, only 9 came at No. 3, with the rest 3 coming at No. 5, 6, and 7.
224: India’s Captain Cool MS Dhoni scripted history in 2013 by racking up the highest score as a designated wicketkeeper-captain. Dhoni notched up 224 runs against Australia in Chennai and became the first keeper-captain to breach the 200 mark. Two weeks later, Mushfiqur Rahim followed suit by bringing up his 200 while leading Bangladesh against Sri Lanka.
0: Test cricket has witnessed batters scoring centuries at each position except No. 11. Ashton Agar and Tino Best came close to the mark but fell short of reaching remarkable hundreds.
