Batsmen Who Faced Most Balls in Test Cricket: The first day of the third Test between India and England at Lord’s belonged to Joe Root, who batted brilliantly and returned to the pavilion after scoring an unbeaten 99 runs. On the strength of his innings, England had scored 251 runs for the loss of 4 wickets by the end of the day’s play. Root broke many big records during this innings.
Batsmen: He has now also become the seventh batsman in the world to face the most balls in Test cricket. He has entered the club of legends like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis and Allan Border. In this article, we will know about those 7 batsmen who have played the most balls in Test cricket.
Table of Contents
These 7 batsmen have made the record of playing the most balls in Test cricket
7 Joe Root
Batsmen: The match currently being played at Lord’s is the 156th match of Root’s Test career. He has played 23007* balls so far. During this time, he has scored more than 13 thousand runs at an average of above 57, which includes 36 centuries and 67 half-centuries.
9️⃣9️⃣*
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 10, 2025
That's stumps – Joe Root ends the day one run shy of his 37th Test century 😅 pic.twitter.com/st6EKtJ0EO
6 Alastair Cook
Batsmen: Sir Alastair Cook is at the sixth position in this list, who is the second highest run-scorer in this format for England. He has played 26562 balls in his 161 Test match career.
5 Allan Border
Batsmen: Allan Border’s Test career was 16 years long. He has scored 11174 runs in 156 matches at an average of 41.09. During this, Border faced 27002 balls. He has scored 27 centuries and 63 half-centuries.
4 Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Former West Indies great batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul occupies the fourth position in this list. Chanderpaul’s Test career started in 1994. He has scored 11867 runs facing 27395 balls.
3 Jacques Kallis
Jacques Kallis, one of the world’s most successful all-rounders, is also included in this list. Like the rest of the batsmen in this list, Kallis was also known for tiring out the bowlers. He has played 28903 balls in a career of 166 matches.
2 Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar, who has scored the most runs and centuries in Test cricket, is second in this list. Tendulkar has faced 29437 balls in his 200-match Test career. During this period, he scored 15921 runs with the help of 51 centuries.
1 Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid is number one in terms of playing the most balls in Test cricket. Dravid is the only player in the world to play more than 30 thousand balls in Test cricket. This legendary right-handed batsman has faced 31258 balls.
