Cricketers who were highest run-getters and wicket-takers in both Tests and ODIs of the same calendar year

Very few batsmen have been the highest run-getters in One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and Tests of the same calendar year. Likewise, very few bowlers have topped the bowling charts in both formats in the same year. Bharath Seervi lists these players.

In the last calendar year, Kumar Sangakkara was the highest run-getter in both Tests and ODIs. He had scored 1,438 runs in 11 Tests at 71.90 and 1,256 runs in 28 ODIs at 46.51. Before him, only 4 men had achieved this feat. Of course, the legendary batsmen before 1971 did not have this opportunity.

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The last bowler to be the highest wicket-taker in both formats was Mitchell Johnson in 2009. He took 63 wickets in Tests and 46 in ODIs. Like batsmen, only 5 bowlers have the distinction of being the highest wicket-taker of a calendar year in both formats.

Let’s see the batsmen and the bowlers with this double achievement.

Highest run-getter in a calendar year in both Tests and ODIs

–          There were very few ODIs in 1976 and 1977 when Viv Richards and Greg Chappell achieved this feat.

–          Sangakkara scored at least 4 centuries in both formats in 2014.

–          Ricky Ponting was the highest run-getter in 2005 in T20Is as well. The very first T20Is was held that year (incidentally Australia played the match against New Zealand). He played 2 matches scoring 98* and 0.

–          Ponting scored 2,833 runs in International matches in 2005. This remained a record till Sangakkara overcame him in 2014. Sangakkara actually scored only 2,813 runs in matches that began in 2014. But in a Test that started on December 31, 2013 he scored 55 on January 2, 2014. Adding those runs, Sangakkara’s aggregate goes to 2,868 — more than Ponting’s tally.

Highest wicket-taker in a calendar year in both Tests and ODIs

–          Waqar Younis made his International debut in 1989; in the next year he achieved this feat.

–          Muttiah Muralitharan took 136 wickets in international matches in 2001 — the most by a bowler in a calendar year. Shane Warne, with 120 wickets in 1994, comes next.

Bonus trivia:

Matthew Hayden was the highest run-getter in ODIs and T20Is in 2007. He scored 1,601 runs in 32 ODIs at an average of of 45.80 and in 302 runs in eight T20Is at 60.40. He was the highest run-getter in both ICC global tournaments that year — World Cup and World T20.

(Bharath Seervi is a cricket statistician who is obsessed with digging numbers, facts and records related to the game. An active member of Society of Cricket Statisticians of India, he blogs at www.cricketseervistats.blogspot.com. He can be followed on Twitter at @SeerviBharath and on Facebook here)