SACHIN TENDULKAR: 50,000 AND COUNTING

Over the past month, there has been a lot of talk and excitement around a milestone that, in all probability, will be Sachin Tendulkar’s last landmark on a cricket field. While everyone has been talking of his 200th Test match, Tendulkar quietly went about achieving another landmark. This was in the semifinal of the recently concluded Champions League Twenty20, playing for Mumbai Indians against Trinidad & Tobago at Delhi on October 5.

Tendulkar became the first Indian and 16th player overall to score 50,000 runs in all forms of the game, first-class, List A and Twenty20s. Although Tendulkar is a good 17,033 runs behind Graham Gooch, the leading run-scorer, he did become the first player from the subcontinent to touch 50,000 runs.

It is surprising that despite all the talk of the amount of cricket being played these days, Tendulkar is the only contemporary batsman to make Table A other than Mark Ramprakash, who has now retired.
Table B has the list for the highest run-scorers among Indian batsmen. All the great names who have represented India over the last two decades or so figure in this list.

Table A: Highest run aggregrates in all forms (first-class, List-A, T20)

Batsman	Period	Matches	Inns	Runs	Avg	100s	First-class	List A	T20s
Graham Gooch	1973-2000	1194	1591	67057	45.67	172	44846	22211	-
Graeme Hick	1983-2008	1214	1537	64372	47.54	178	41112	22059	1201
Jack Hobbs	1905-1934	834	1325	61760	50.70	199	61670	-	-
Frank Woolley	1906-1938	978	1530	58959	40.77	145	58959	-	-
Geoff Boycott	1962-1986	922	1316	58521	52.72	159	48426	10095	-
Patsy Hendren	1907-1937	833	1300	57611	50.80	170	57611	-	-
Dennis Amiss	1960-1987	1062	1530	55942	40.83	117	43423	12519	-
Phil Mead	1905-1936	814	1340	55061	47.67	153	55061	-	-
WG Grace	1865-1908	870	1478	54211	39.45	124	54211	-	-
Gordon Greenidge	1970-1992	963	1325	53703	44.12	125	37354	16349	-
Viv Richards	1971-1993	1007	1262	53207	46.75	140	36212	16995	-
Mike Gatting	1975-1998	1102	1369	51025	43.72	106	36549	14476	-
Herbert Sutcliffe	1919-1945	754	1098	50670	52.02	151	50670	-	-
Mark Ramprakash	1987-2012	931	1221	50651	48.05	131	35659	13273	1719
Walter Hammond	1920-1951	634	1005	50551	56.10	167	50551	-	-
Sachin Tendulkar	1988-2013	954	1120	50024	49.82	142	25228	21999	2797

Table B: Highest run aggregrates amongst Indian batsmen

Batsman	Period	Matches	Inns	Runs	Avg	100s	First-class	List A	T20s
Sachin Tendulkar	1988-2013	954	1120	50024	49.82	142	25228	21999	2797
Rahul Dravid	1990-2013	856	1014	41651	47.06	89	23794	15271	2586
Sourav Ganguly	1990-2011	768	893	33035	41.19	64	15687	15622	1726
Sunil Gavaskar	1966-1987	499	707	30428	48.38	86	25834	4594	-
Mohd Azharuddin	1981-2000	661	742	28786	45.40	65	15855	12931	-
Virender Sehwag	1997-2013	614	715	26612	38.85	55	13230	10298	3084
VVS Laxman	1992-2012	465	627	25299	45.91	64	19730	5078	491