Nowadays, batters are displaying their six-hitting skills in the Test format, but a few batters love playing the ball by the ground. They dazzle the field with classy drives and elegant cut shots that send the ball to the boundary ropes.
With the near-perfect skills to time the ball and find the gap to smash a four, such batters find themselves among the elites. In this article, we’ll look at the top 10 instances of batters with the most fours in a calendar year in Tests.
Most Fours in Test in a Calendar Year
| Player | Year | Inns | 4s | 6s | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Viv Richards (WI) | 1976 | 19 | 223 | 7 | 1710 |
| Mohammad Yousuf (PAK) | 2006 | 19 | 222 | 12 | 1788 |
| Graeme Smith (SA) | 2008 | 25 | 215 | 4 | 1656 |
| Virender Sehwag (IND) | 2010 | 25 | 215 | 10 | 1422 |
| Sachin Tendulkar (IND) | 2002 | 26 | 197 | 4 | 1392 |
| Brian Lara (WI) | 1995 | 20 | 192 | 1 | 1222 |
| Rahul Dravid (IND) | 2002 | 26 | 189 | 0 | 1357 |
| Michael Clarke (AUS) | 2012 | 18 | 189 | 6 | 1595 |
| Michael Vaughan (ENG) | 2002 | 26 | 186 | 11 | 1481 |
| Chris Gayle (WI) | 2004 | 22 | 185 | 6 | 1135 |
| Virender Sehwag (IND) | 2008 | 27 | 181 | 22 | 1462 |
| Sachin Tendulkar (IND) | 2010 | 23 | 181 | 10 | 1562 |
| Ricky Ponting (AUS) | 2003 | 18 | 180 | 7 | 1503 |
| Marcus Trescothick (ENG) | 2005 | 24 | 180 | 11 | 1323 |
| Joe Root (ENG) | 2021 | 29 | 179 | 3 | 1708 |
Key Insights
223: Sir Viv Richards, the batting marvel from the West Indies, holds the record for hitting the most fours in a calendar year in Tests. Richards smashed over 223 boundaries in 1976, and no batter has breached his tally to date. After a gap of 30 years, Mohammad Yousuf did come close to the tally but fell short by a sleek margin.
4: Australia’s Matthew Hayden is the only batter who has scored 150 or more fours in 4 calendar years, with his highest count of 175 achieved in 2005.
320: There are over 320 instances of batters hitting 100 fours in a calendar in the Test format.
