Australia and England are two teams who have been playing against each other in cricket for more than 100 years now. So it is obvious that any opponent-wise statistics of these two teams will have the other dominating. And then we have Sachin Tendulkar, who, with his insane longevity within the 22 yards of the cricketing pitch, can dominate any record relevant to cricket batting.
Sachin is only short of 6 runs of the biggest Australian opponent batter, Jack Hobbs’ overall tally against Australia. And it is not surprising to see no current-day cricketers making this list, thanks to Australia’s 100-year rich history of the game.
This article will list the top ten cricketers who have scored the most Test runs against Australia.
Most Runs against Australia in Test Cricket
| BATSMAN | RUNS | INNINGS | HIGH SCORE | AVERAGE | 100s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Hobbs (ENG) | 3636 | 71 | 187 | 54.26 | 12 |
| Sachin Tendulkar (IND) | 3630 | 74 | 241* | 55.00 | 11 |
| David Gower (ENG) | 3269 | 77 | 215 | 44.78 | 9 |
| Geoff Boycott (ENG) | 2945 | 71 | 191 | 47.50 | 7 |
| Brian Lara (WI) | 2856 | 58 | 277 | 51.00 | 9 |
| Wally Hammond (ENG) | 2852 | 58 | 251 | 51.85 | 9 |
| Herbert Sutcliffe (ENG) | 2741 | 46 | 194 | 66.85 | 8 |
| John Edrich (ENG) | 2644 | 57 | 175 | 48.96 | 7 |
| Graham Gooch (ENG) | 2632 | 79 | 196 | 33.31 | 4 |
| Alastair Cook (ENG) | 2493 | 64 | 244* | 40.20 | 5 |
Key Stats
Sachin is also one century short of Hobbs against the Aussies. Both these batters are part of the chart of the top ten batsmen who have the most 100s against one team in the longest format, which is led by an Australian batsman.
The highest score against Australia in Tests is 364, scored by England’s Leonard Hutton, who almost made it to this list with 2428 runs in 49 innings. The other batter who missed the list by just 60 runs is India’s, VVS Laxman. Laxman has an overall tally of 2434 against Australia and holds the record for the highest individual score against Australia by an Indian. He always posed a special threat to the Aussie bowlers, as they found him impossible to dismiss.
The other batsman who didn’t make it to this list but has scored 8 centuries against Australia is Richie Richardson. The West Indian almost averaged 50 in the 48 innings he played against the Aussies, aggregating 2175 runs.
Courtney Walsh, who holds the overall record for the batters with most ducks in Test history and 2nd across formats, is also the one who has been dismissed for most ducks by the Australian bowlers – 13 times in 60 innings. For anyone searching Ajit Agarkar’s name here, he has been dismissed for 8 ducks in 16 innings against the Aussies. In contrast, another Indian plays the second position to Walsh – Ishant Sharma with 12 ducks in 39 innings.
Considering all the batters who have faced more than 20 innings against Australia, South Africa’s Graeme Pollock has been the most consistent with an average of almost 70 (69.19), followed by the above table’s place-holder Herbert Sutcliffe.
Here’s one of the greatest innings played by Graeme Pollock against Australia in Perth in the 1971/72 series:
Among the current generation players, we have Joe Root (who have crossed 2000), Cheteshwar Pujara (who is nearing the 2000 mark), and Virat Kohli (who has crossed 1500) chasing the line.
