When India’s Sunil Gavaskar deftly cut Pakistan’s Ijaz Faqih towards third man at Ahmedabad in March 1987, cricket’s history books had the proverbial rewrite.

In the 110 years of the game, no cricketer had passed 10,000 Test runs. From match footage online today, after the shot, the television producer has a bubble emerge of Gavaskar with an arm aloft running between the wickets, and the Ahmedabad crowd in the background — peak 1980s’ video editing. Supporters rush to the field to surround him.

Speaking at the end of the day’s play, Gavaskar says that he would have been happy with 1,000 Test runs — which he reiterated 37 years later in the popular show The Dressing Room, during the Champions Trophy this year. 

Since Gavaskar, 14 more men have crossed 10,000 Test runs. India’s Sachin Tendulkar was just shy of 16,000 when he retired, while South Africa’s Jacques Kallis, India’s Rahul Dravid and Australia’s Ricky Ponting all scored more than 13,000. England’s Joe Root, who is still playing, has 13,543 runs so far.

Australia’s Steve Smith recently became only the 15th player ever to cross 10,000 runs in Test cricket. Could he be the last?

In January this year against Sri Lanka at Galle, Australia’s Steve Smith rolled his wrists towards mid-on against — like Faqih — another spinner, Sri Lanka’s Prabath Jayasuriya, becoming the game’s 15th player to join the 10,000 club. Incidentally, he had fallen on 9,999 against India at Sydney just weeks earlier, missing the chance to cross the milestone on his home ground.

The question, however, is: will there ever be another cricketer to reach this landmark?

When India’s Virat Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket in June of this year, he was 770 runs short, while New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, who in recent months has kept everyone guessing about his career, is 724 runs behind. The Kiwi cricketer, however, has so far not officially announced his retirement and continues to play county cricket for Middlesex. If Williamson decides to be back on the field, he might become the last member of the club.

Their contemporaries are far behind. England captain Ben Stokes, who presently played at home against India, just crossed 7,000 runs after 115 Test matches. While Stokes is contracted to play for England till 2026, time on his career seems limited after that. 

Ten thousand runs also means a serious number of Test matches. No one on the list has scored the figure in fewer than 100 Tests. West Indies’ Brian Lara was the fastest, reaching it in 111 games. West Indies’ Gary Sobers, playing 93 Tests, scored 8,032 runs, becoming the player with the most Test runs who played fewer than 100 matches.

Both longevity and administrator interest in Test cricket remain a battle. In the 10,000-runs club, Root is the only cricketer to have scored them within a decade, due to the sheer number of Test matches that England play. In contrast, West Indies’ Shivnaraine Chanderpaul took 18 years to score as many.

Pakistan’s hope?

Pakistan fans however should not be losing any sleep over this statistic. When Younis Khan swept Roston Chase to reach the milestone against the West Indies on his farewell tour in April 2017, he cemented the place of at least one Pakistani on the list. 

Younis’ partner on the other end that day was Babar Azam. The now 30-year-old has scored 4,235 Test runs in 59 innings. After him follow Shan Masood and Mohammad Rizwan, both below 2,500 runs. 

In the next World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, 2025-2027, Pakistan is presently scheduled to play 13 Tests — incidentally also the second-lowest number of Tests, playing just one more than Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and one less than South Africa and the West Indies. 

If Babar were to play all 26 innings that are currently on the cards, his current average of 42.77 would take him to another 1,112 runs. The selectors of course will have the main say in that. 

On the lookout

However there are players who might make this article look silly in a few years. Similar to how Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner seem to be tossing a coin between themselves since the 2024 Australian Open of who gets to win a tennis Grand Slam, in the cricketing world, England’s Harry Brook and India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal are making runs like men possessed.

In just 36 innings, Brook crossed 2,000 runs, while Jaiswal, not far behind, crossed the same landmark after 40. Such stats are unheard of today. Among those making their debut since 2015, there have been only four players who have scored 2,000 runs in under 50 innings: Australians Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head, Brook and Jaiswal.

However, cricketers lose form. Marnus Labuschagne crossed 2,000 in just 34 innings, but a dip in form saw his average drop below 33, also leading to selection battles. Labuschagne is also over the age of 30, which automatically starts the clock on the ‘second’ phase of his career.

In the recent India tour of England, Brook had an uncharacteristically ordinary series, and this is despite scoring two centuries and being out on 99 once. Jaiswal, similarly, crossed 100 twice. India’s captain Shubman Gill, meanwhile, was miles ahead, scoring 754 runs in 10 innings, and a renewed sense of confidence and ownership after assuming India’s captaincy might lead to a purple patch.

Impact factors

Yet the modern game has changed dramatically on another front as well, with statisticians — regularly employed by teams — focusing on player impact through aggregates rather than singular milestones.

Kohli’s retirement this June left the Indian batsman agonisingly short of the landmark, but recent form had brought up questions on his place in the Indian side. Since 2020 — in terms of calendar years — he scored 2,028 runs in 39 Tests and, except for a bumper year in 2023, his average remained far below 30. Furthermore, while he could have stayed and crossed 10,000 runs, India’s batting line-up seems quite at home without him.

At the same time, however, one has to take into account the impact Kohli brought to an Indian batting line-up, as any Pakistan fan painfully knows. Kohli’s retirement from Tests did not only bring a stop to his runs, but also led to the absence of a fighter in the dressing room, one which is impossible to quantify in datasets. Though England and India played an incredible series ending 2-2, one wonders what effect a player like Kohli could have brought to it.

Hence, the idea of 10,000 Test runs as being the sole arbitrator of a great Test player might quickly lose its charm. The 15 men who have crossed this milestone — barring Kane Williamson adding himself to the list — might be the only ones cricket records would have to write. Another 10,000-run Test player might never be on the horizon. 

Steve Smith’s crossing of the landmark came in the 148th year of the game, in nearly 2,600 Test matches played. The next might need a little bit more time.

The writer is managing editor at Folio Books

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 24th, 2025