Kumar Sangakkara: Sri Lanka batsman passes 12,000 Test runs

The fastest of how many? Dats one ah dem meaningless statistics.

However he have an excellent average and an excellent century ratio.

Not so meaningless when the other four on the list are Tendulkar, Ponting, Kallis and Dravid and it took all of them 23+ more innings. And none of them was ever burdened with the wicket-keeping job in test matches.

It's somewhat meaningless because it's a function of the number of tests that they play.

And what tests did they all play against the likes of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe?

Yes, but career longevity is in itself an achievement.

The same could probably be said of a lot of other players too, but I checked the stats and Sangakkara played 15 tests against Bangladesh. None of the other players on the 12,000 run list played more than 7. Dravid and Tendulkar played 9 tests against Zimbabwe to Sanga's 5 though. Ponting played very little against the minnows - only 4 against Bangladesh and 3 against Zimbabwe.

While career longevity is a worthwhile achievement it depends on factors that are sometimes totally out of the players control.

Let's take Clarke - I don't think he has much longer in tests and that's no fault of his. I don't think there is anything he did that caused his ongoing back/hamstring problems.

Walsh holds the WI record for the most test wickets. While that is a laudable achievement it's not going to get him ahead of either Marshall or Ambrose whom many consider as the top 2 WI fast bowlers.

Don't get me wrong Sangakkara is a great batsman but his getting to whatever the landmark is in fewer innings does not put him ahead of the others in terms of batsmanship. I prefer to look at what the batsman has done home and away and the opposition he has done it against.

Sangakkara has an excellent average of 60.33 against Australia in Australia but strangely enough he has only played 5 matches there. Yet in Sri Lanka in 6 matches he averages only 30.45.

I have not bothered to investigate further but his average in Sri Lanka is puzzling to say the least.

My point is that going behind the numbers reveals quite a lot and it can be fascinating.

I fully expected Kohli to get at least 2 centuries in England last summer. The man failed miserably.

Is it because he had to time to adjust to the swinging ball? Will he make amends the next time they tour England?

Sanga's stats are inflated by Bangladesh bashing and Pakistan bashing on runs-truck, subcontinent pitches. Tendulkar feasted on Sri Lanka and Bangladesh too, but not as much as Sanga.

Sanga has 38 centuries. 30 of those are on the subcontinent/UAE. 3 of the remaining 8 are versus New Zealand, and 1 is vs Zimbabwe.

Because of not-outs and a 192 vs an in-transition Australia with a bad bowling attack (the aging Brett Lee was the only good bowler, who retired immediately after the game). To Sangas credit, he always scores when nobody else does, as we see today. Unlike Shiv, Sanga's runs are often meaningful in the context of the game.

Well done to Sangka ........ excellent double ton !!!

Sanga's current stats ..... Click here >>>>