How Sehwag beats Sachin and Sunny

Veeru became the fastest Indian to reach the 4,000 run mark in terms of least number of innings taken, writes Rajneesh Gupta.

Virender Sehwag became the eleventh Indian batsman to complete 4,000 runs in Test cricket during his innings of 65 on the fifth and final day of St Kitts Test.

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More importantly, he became the fastest among Indians to reach the 4,000 run-mark in terms of least number of innings taken to accomplish the feat.

Sehwag took only 79 innings to achieve this landmark, which puts him at top of the following list ahead of Sunil Gavaskar (81), Dravid (84) and Tendulkar (86).

Race to 4,000 run-mark

Innings	Batsman	Test	Avg	100s	50s
79	Sehwag	48	53.44	12	12
81	Gavaskar	43	54.05	17	17
84	Dravid	48	54.05	9	21
86	Tendulkar	58	51.95	14	18
88	Azharuddin	62	47.62	14	13
96	Viswanath	53	45.45	8	26
99	Amarnath	60	44.94	11	23
104	Ganguly	62	43.48	9	20
104	Laxman	65	43.48	8	22
114	Vengsarkar	70	38.83	8	22
138	Kapil Dev	97	32.00	6	21

Among all the contemporary batsmen, Sehwag is the third fastest behind only Brian Lara and Matthew Hayden as is listed below:

Innings	Batsman	For	Tests	Avg	100s	50s
76	Lara	WI	45	54.79	10	20
77	Hayden	Aus	46	57.97	16	11
79	Sehwag	Ind	48	53.44	12	12
84	Dravid	Ind	48	54.05	9	21
86	Tendulkar	Ind	58	51.95	14	18
91	Gibbs	RSA	55	46.51	11	14
91	Jayawardene	SL	57	48.19	10	20
91	Martyn	Aus	57	51.28	12	22
92	M Yousuf	Pak	56	48.19	12	21
92	Sangakkara	SL	56	46.51	9	19

At the end of the St Kitts Test, Sehwag's average stands at 55.56 as an opener. This is easily the highest career average by an Indian opener and the fourth highest in Test cricket for any player who has played at least 50 innings at this position.

Best openers in Test cricket (Minimum 50 innings)

Avg	Batsman	Tests	Runs	HS	100s	50s
61.10	H Sutcliffe  (Eng)	53	4522	194	16	23
56.47	L Hutton (Eng)	76	6721	364	19	31
56.37	JB Hobbs (Eng)	58	5130	211	14	27
55.56	V Sehwag (Ind)	43	3723	309	11	10
55.51	RB Simpson (Aus)	38	3664	311	8	19
53.70	DL Amiss (Eng)	39	3276	262*	11	9
53.08	ML Hayden (Aus)	84	7326	380	26	26
51.11	HH Gibbs (SA)	59	4907	228	14	18
50.81	GC Smith (SA)	46	3659	277	11	12
50.29	S Gavaskar (Ind)	119	9607	221	33	42