Steve Waugh is the 43rd player on the list of batters who reached 7000 Test runs in 174 or fewer innings.
Of those batters, only 20 did it in 150 innings or fewer. This is a tally that requires a lot of time at the crease for batters to reach.
However, who has taken the least time to get there?
Below, we have listed the seven fastest batters to get to 7000 Test runs…
1. Steve Smith – 126 Test innings
Age: 36
Nation: Australia
Test runs: 10,424
Major milestones aren’t often accompanied by a landmark score in an innings. That is what happened when Smith became the fastest batter to reach 7000 Test runs. Australia was on 369/2 when Smith walked out to bat.
Marnus Labuschagne had scored a brilliant 162 in a 361-run second-wicket partnership with David Warner, who went on to score a monumental unbeaten 335.
The duo’s milestones put Pakistan on the back foot. The two sides were competing in Adelaide in 2019. Smith managed a mere 36 from 64 balls.
It was one of the 23 times that his innings had stopped in the 30s. Despite it being only 36 runs, the score made him the only batter to reach the milestone in fewer than 130 innings.
2. Wally Hammond – 131 Test innings
Age: Died 1965 at 62
Nation: England
Test runs: 7,249
The match between England and India, played in August 1946, promised to be a spectacle. India had Vijay Merchant, Mushtaq Ali, Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, and Vijay Hazare with the bat, while England had Len Hutton, Denis Compton, Wally Hammond, and Bill Edrich.
Clement Attlee, the then Prime Minister, and his wife were present on the first two days of the match too.
Unfortunately, the promise of great batting was ruined by bad weather. India managed 331 in their first innings, powered by Merchant’s ton. England was on 95/3 with Compton and Hammond at the crease.
Hammond was unbeaten on nine when rain came down and swept away the match. However, the nine runs were enough to see him to the 7000-run mark in 131 innings.
3. Virender Sehwag – 134 Test innings
Age: 46
Nation: India
Test runs: 8,586
When Sri Lanka faced India in August 2010, they had a plan on how to handle Sehwag. When the opener walked out to bat in his 134th innings, Kumar Sangakkara and his bowlers were going to bore him into making a mistake.
The plan had worked on two previous occasions. Sri Lanka forced the Indian star to endure run-less spells, and that led to his downfall.
However, it didn’t work this time around. Sri Lanka set a defensive field and bowled defensive lines, but Sehwag was too locked in to fall for the trap. The opener top-scored for India with a brisk 109 from 104 balls as he led them to 436. The century also propelled him over the 7000-run mark.
4. Sachin Tendulkar – 136 Test innings
Age: 52
Nation: India
Test runs: 15,921
Two great things and a single bad one happened for India when they played against South Africa in November 2001; Virender Sehwag scored his maiden Test century, while Tendulkar made history by becoming the youngest batter to score 7000 Test runs. The bad thing was that India lost the match.
India was on 43/2 when Tendulkar walked in to bat. He now had 12 years of Test cricket under his belt, and India’s perilous position did not alarm him. He took control as he batted his way to a 26th Test hundred. Tendulkar’s partnership of 220 with Sehwag helped India reach 379.
His 184-ball 155 made him the youngest player to score 7,000 Test runs, at 28 years 193 days in his 85th Test, beating David Gower, who was 31 when he achieved the milestone.
5= Sir Garry Sobers – 138 Test innings
Age: 88
Nation: West Indies
Test runs: 8,032
The West Indies’ batters looked uncomfortable against India’s spin when the two sides met in March 1971. That’s why the worst thing that could happen was Sobers colliding with Clive Lloyd while taking a second run, injuring both players.
Lloyd, who was run out, had to be assisted off the field, while Sobers, who sustained an injury in the neck, held on for almost half an hour. He was dismissed for a mere four runs.
Sobers was feeling better in the West Indies’ second innings and showed how much better with a brilliant and unbeaten match-saving century.
The West Indies were on 137/3 when Sobers arrived at the crease, and the left-hander shared an unbroken 170-run fourth-wicket partnership with Charlie Davis, who also scored an unbeaten century.
Sobers’ ton did not just help the West Indies secure a draw, it also shot him past the 7000-run mark.
5= Kumar Sangakkara – 138 Test innings
Age: 47
Nation: Sri Lanka
Test runs: 12,400
Kumar Sangakkara was known as a batter with the ability to launch dazzling counterattacks in pressure situations. However, when he walked out to bat against Pakistan in July 2009, he chose a different approach. Sri Lanka was on 83/1 and trailing by 408 runs.
The hosts needed someone to dig in and bat through the final day to save the match for them.
Sangakkara made crease occupation his priority. He scored at a pedestrian pace, accumulating an unbeaten 130 runs from 303 balls in 471 minutes to save the match for Sri Lanka.
The fourth innings century was Sangakkara’s 19th Test ton, and it lifted him past the 7000-run mark.
5= Virat Kohli – 138 Test innings
Age: 36
Nation: India
Test runs: 9,230
It’s not often that a batter scores their career-best and crosses a milestone in the same innings. That is what Kohli did in October 2019. India’s batters feasted on South Africa’s batters; Mayank Agarwal scored a brilliant century, while Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, and Ravindra Jadeja registered half-centuries. But none was as outstanding as Kohli, who smashed an unbeaten 254.
Kohli’s innings catapulted India to 601/6d. That was enough to guarantee victory for India. It was also enough to launch the Indian superstar past the 7000-run mark.
It also made him the fifth Indian batter to go past the 250-run mark in an innings, alongside VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, and Karun Nair.