Steven Smith becomes joint second-fastest to reach 6,000 Test runs; equals Gary Sobers, way ahead of Virat Kohli, Joe Root

Steven Smith starts off the year 2018 with a bang at Sydney Cricket Ground by equalling Sir Garfield Sobers' record

By: Arun Rawal |
January 5, 2018 12:59 pm

Steven Smith is in the best form ever; he is chasing every record in the history books. The Ashes 2017-18 has been one series where he has dominated with the bat scoring centuries after centuries. On January 5, Smith became the joint second-fastest to reach 6,000 Test runs. The Australian skipper achieved this feat in 111 innings.

Windies legend Gary Sobers achieved this feat in 111 innings as well. Though Don Bradman leads the list by a huge margin as he reached the 6,000 Test runs mark in just 68 innings. In terms of Test matches played, Smith is clearly the second-fastest in the mark.

Here is the list of five fastest batsman to reach 6,000 Test runs:

Sir Don Bradman (Australia), 45 matches, 68 innings
Steven Smith (Australia), 61 matches, 111 innings
Sir Garfield Sobers (Windies), 65 matches, 111 innings
Wally Hammond (England), 70 matches, 114 innings
Sir Leonard Hutton (England), 66 matches, 116 innings

A special milestone for Aussie skipper @stevesmith49!

Fastest to 6,000 Test runs:

Sir Don (68 innings)
Smith (111)
Sobers (111)#Ashes pic.twitter.com/TrnhwMfh1z

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) January 5, 2018

But Smith managed to beat Bradman in one race as he became the youngest Australian to reach the feat at the age of 27 years and 217 days. The previous record was held by former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting (29 years and 98 days).

A couple of false starts for Crane and then Smith goes BANG! https://t.co/vhFwlbdpM8 #Ashes pic.twitter.com/TFPC9lZIxp

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) January 5, 2018

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Smith became the 15th Australian batsman to score 6,000 runs in Test cricket. He is currently batting on 41 moving towards his 24th Test century which will also create a record as he will become the second fastest to these many Test centuries.

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Smith is way ahead of his contemporaries Virat Kohli, Joe Root and Kane Williamson. While Virat still has a slim chance of reaching the 6,000-run mark before Smith as he currently has 5,268 runs from 106 innings. On the other hand, Root has already played 117 innings and scored 5,560 runs and Williamson has 5,214 runs from 113 innings.