Steve Smith has achieved another milestone to his remarkable international career, breaking a 73-year record in becoming the fastest player to 7,000 Test runs on day two of the second Domain Test against Pakistan at the Adelaide Oval. He began the match where the team was in need of just 23 runs to reach the landmark, and in doing so he also moved past another feted number in Australian cricket – the 6,996 Test runs scored by Sir Donald Bradman.
Another record broken for the outstanding Steve Smith! @Domaincomau | #AUSvPAK pic.twitter.com/pjmEKY7BKk
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 30, 2019
In the past decades, Indian pair Virender Sehwag (134 inns) and Sachin Tendulkar (136) were able to reach the closet of Hammond among the 48 other batsmen to have reached the 7,000-run landmark. The Australian, who made one and 12 from No.8 as a leg-spinning allrounder on Test debut in 2010, has established himself in the past six years as the dominant batsman of his era with a stunning 26 hundred in his past 57 Tests and an average that topped 65 during this year’s Ashes.
For context, Bradman’s 6,996 runs arrived in just 80 innings, leaving the legendary Australian streets ahead of his nearest rivals. Among the 11 Australians to have reached 7,000 Test runs, Matthew Hayden (142 inns) and Ricky Ponting (145) are the next quickest to the mark, while Indian Virat Kohli is Smith’s nearest contemporary rival, having hit the figure in 138 innings against South Africa last month.
Fastest to 7,000 Test runs
126 innings – Steve Smith (Aus)
131 – Wally Hammond (Eng)
134 – Virender Sehwag (Ind)
136 – Sachin Tendulkar (Ind)
138 – Sir Garfield Sobers (WI), Kumar Sangakkara (SL), Virat Kohli (Ind)
140 – Sunil Gavaskar (Ind), Viv Richards (WI)
Ricky Pointing appreciates and Congratulates Smith for this Marvelous Achievement:
Ponting congratulated him and said,” You hear all sorts of words, ‘genius’ is one that comes to mind,” “It’s his application to what he does. He just doesn’t make any mistakes. His concentration levels are obviously unbelievably good.
“He’s got a game plan that’s working incredibly well for him to the point where it just looks like teams have no idea how they’re going to bowl to him, where they’re going to bowl to him, how they’re going to get him out.
“Right now, he’s on top of his game but he’s also got every opposition team exactly where he wants them.
“He’s in his early thirties now, he’s got four, five, six years of good cricket ahead of him, which if you add it up that’s probably another 80, 90 Test matches.
“Then he’s played 150 games and could have all sorts of numbers and records by then … he deserves to go down as one of the greats.” He added.
Smith went past Bradman and smashed Hammond's record in the process.#AUSvPAKhttps://t.co/FclJq4gR22
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 30, 2019
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