PAK vs AUS: Steve Smith Becomes The Fastest Player To Score 8000 Runs In Test Cricket
Australian team’s vice-captain Steve Smith has become the fastest player to score 8000 runs in Test cricket history. He achieved the feat during the third innings of the third and final Test against Pakistan at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
Smith needed to score 7 runs in Australia’s second innings to break former Sri Lankan legend, Kumar Sangakkara’s record. While Sangakkara took 152 innings to reach the milestone, Smith stacked up 8k in 151 innings.
Third on the list is the ‘Master Blaster’, Sachin Tendulkar, who reached the figure in his 154th innings for India. Sir Garfield Sobers and Rahul Dravid round out the top five, with each needing 157 and 158 innings respectively.
Smith will go down as arguably the best Test batter of his generation. In the current batch of active cricketers, he is the only player with an average over 60 and the run tally includes 27 centuries.
Notably, Smith is actually going through a rough patch. He hasn’t scored a Test century in over 420 days, very surprising for the kind of standards the 32-year-old has set for himself in Tests.
Players with the least number of innings to 8,000 Test runs:
151 – Steve Smith (Australia)
152 – Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)
154 – Sachin Tendulkar (India)
157 – Garfield Sobers (West Indies)
158 – Rahul Dravid (India)
Meanwhile, Usman Khawaja brought up his 12th career century in the third innings against Pakistan as Australia further solidified their position on Day 4. It is his second hundred of the series to go with two 90s.
At Tea on Day 4, Australia had reached 202/2, stretching the overall lead to 325 runs with exactly four sessions of play left in the third and final Test match.
Australia Test squad for Pakistan tour:
Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mark Steketee, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.
