Milestones and records to aim for Kumar Sangakkara in his last series before retirement

Kumar Sangakkara has announced he will retire after the second Test of the three-Test home series against India. Before Sangakkara ends his career, Bharath Seervi lists a few possible milestones and records for Sangakkara to aim for. Kumar Sangakkara is arguably the best batsman of this century, and the most consistent of all batsmen of this decade. Though he did not start his career on a high, he has been scoring runs at will since 2006. In Tests, he has scored most runs and hundreds for Sri Lanka. He averages a whopping 58.04 —the highest among all batsmen who have scored over 8,000 Test runs.

The Sri Lankan legend has decided to bid adieu to his Test career after playing the first two Tests of the three-Test home series against India. He announced his retirement from One-Day Internationals (ODIs) after ICC World Cup 2015 and from T20 Internationals (T20Is) after ICC World T20 2014. Thus he will be playing international cricket for the last time. India vs Sri Lanka 2015, 1st Test at Galle preview: Visitors chase history in Kumar Sangakkara’s farewell series

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Before he begins his last two Tests, let us list milestones he can reach and records he can break or equal. We assume that he plays all the possible four innings of the two Tests. READ: India’s likely XI for 1st Test vs Sri Lanka at Galle

1. The most important record Kumar Sangakkara should look to equal or break is Don Bradman’s record of most double centuries in Test cricket. Bradman scored 12 double tons in his career which ended in 1948. No one has come closer to the feat than Sangakkara, who has 11 under his belt. So, one double ton would equal Bradman, and two will break the record standing for 67 years. Brian Lara came closer to it before but ended his career with nine 200s (his last test century was a double-century). READ: India will not miss Murali Vijay in 1st vs Sri Lanka, KL Rahul apt replacement

2. Sangakkara needs to score 323 runs (if he gets out four times), 263 (thrice), 206 (twice), or 147 (once) or 89 (if he remains unbeaten) to take his batting average past Wally Hammond’s 58.45. He will thus become the man with thehighest batting average among all who scored over 7,000 Test runs and third-highest average after Bradman (99.94) and Ken Barrington (58.67) among all with over 5,000. Sangakkara’s average is 58.04, and if he makes it big, he may even go past Barrington’s average.

3. Sangakkara needs one more century to equal with Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Mahela Jayawardene’s record of most home Test hundreds. They all scored 23 Test hundreds in their respective home countries. Sangakkara has scored 22 in Sri Lanka (surprisingly, Sachin Tendulkar has 22 as well). He has four innings and he is playing at home, so expecting two centuries from him isn’t too much to ask for! READ: Virat Kohli’s trial by fire as Test captain begins with tour of Sri Lanka

4. Sangakkara needs to score 414 runs to become the highest Test run-getters in Asia. He is currently at third position with 9,260 runs after Tendulkar (9,674) and Jayawardene (9,399). He needs 33 to go Jayawardene. In case of centuries in Asia, Sangakkara has 30 centuries in Asia compared to 33 by Tendulkar. It will be difficult to ask him for four centuries in four innings to get that record from Tendulkar!

5. Sangakkara needs to score 145 more in the two third innings to become the highest run-getter in third innings of Tests. He has scored 3,366 runs in the third innings, and is behind only Allan Border (3,511) and Kallis (3394). He already has the most centuries in the third innings (12).

6. Sangakkara needs 265 to complete 7,000 Test runs in Sri Lanka. He will become the fifth batsman after Ponting (7,578), Tendulkar (7,216), Jayawardene (7,167) and Kallis (7,035) to aggregate more than 7,000 runs at home.

7. A century in the first test match at Galle will be his eighth at the venue surpassing Mahela’s record for most centuries at that venue.

8. Sangakkara needs to be involved in four half-century partnerships (50 to 99 runs) to go past Kallis (128) and have the record of being involved in most half-century partnerships (50-99). Sangakkara has 63 century partnerships and 125 half-century partnerships. However, he does not come close to Rahul Dravid’s record of 88 century partnerships and 126 more between 50 and 99.

9. If Sangakkara can add 204 run with Dinesh Chandimal across the series, he will complete 1,000 partnership runs with nine different players. Kallis is the only player to aggregate 1,000 with 10 different players.

10. Sangakkara requires 215 runs in his team’s second innings (third or fourth innings of the Tests) to go past Kallis’ 4,726 to become the highest run-getter in team’s second innings in Tests. He already has the most centuries in the team’s second innings (14).

11. If Sangakkara can score a century in the second Test of the series (his career’s last) he will be the second Sri Lankan after Aravinda de Silva to score a century in his last Test. The last time a batting legend played his last test against India, he scored a century — Kallis. Can Sangakkara do the same? However, Kallis is the only batsman to score a century in career’s last Test playing against India.

So, these are the few records and milestones Kumar Sangakkara can get to before retiring. Let us see how many he can. If he continues with his amazing consistency, all can be achieved — else none!

(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)