Kumar Sangakkara has 10 double centuries in Tests and has surpassed Brian Lara who has nine © AFP
Kumar Sangakkara has 10 double centuries in Tests and has surpassed Brian Lara who has nine © AFP

By Devarchit Varma

Aug 9, 2014

Kumar Sangakkara slammed his 10th double century in Test cricket during the first match against Pakistan at Galle. The double ton at Galle means Sangakkara moves close to Sir Donald Bradman, who scored as many as 12 in his career. Sangakkara faced as many as 425 balls during his marathon innings, cracked 24 boundaries and scored 221 runs to Sri Lanka ahead of Pakistan in the match which seems to be heading for a draw.

Sangakkara is in tremendous form of late as he is the top run-scorer in Test cricket in the year 2014. In 10 Test matches (including the ongoing match), the left-handed batsman has garnered as many as 1,384 runs. Sangakkara has smashed four centuries and eight half-centuries in this period, including a duck. His batting average since January 2014 is 86.50. Sangakkara also registered his highest Test cricket – 319 against Bangladesh.

Among those who are active in international cricket, it is only Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene in the top 10 list of batsmen who have scored most double centuries in Test cricket. Jayawardene is all set to retire after the ongoing Test series against Pakistan. In the list there is also Marvan Atapattu with six double centuries. Atapattu is currently Sri Lanka’s batting coach.

Sri Lanka took a lead of 82 runs as they declared their first innings at 533 for nine on the fourth day of the first Test.

Here’s the list of batsmen with most number of double centuries:

Player Teams  Years M R HS Avg 200s 100s 50s
Don Bradman Australia 1928-1948 52 6996 334 99.94 12 29 13
Kumar Sangakkara Sri Lanka  2000-2014 127* 11874 319 59.37 10 37 50
Brian Lara West Indies & ICC 1990-2006 131 11953 400* 52.88 9 34 48
Wally Hammond England 1927-1947 85 7249 336* 58.45 7 22 24
Mahela Jayawardene Sri Lanka 1997-2014 148* 11730 374 50.12 7 34 49
Marvan Atapattu Sri Lanka 1990-2007 90 5502 249 39.02 6 16 17
Virender Sehwag India & ICC 2001-2013 104 8586 319 49.34 6 23 32
Javed Miandad Pakistan 1976-1993 124 8832 280* 52.57 6 23 43
Ricky Ponting Australia 1995-2012 168 13378 257 51.85 6 41 62
Sachin Tendulkar India 1989-2013 200 15921 248* 53.78 6 51 68