Sachin Tendulkar, in 1998, aggregated over 1894 runs in the ODI format, which is the highest any cricketer has made in a calendar year in One-Day Internationals. The record has stood for more than 20 years now, showing how brilliant the achievement is in terms of batting quality.
Remember the dust storm in Sharjah that year? It is the perfect storm that took place in the game of cricket, and it didn’t pass for a long time.
The fellow team and batch mates of the master cricketer himself, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, came so close to Sachin’s feat in the following year (1999) but ended up 100-odd runs short. The record 318-run partnership between Ganguly and Dravid against Sri Lanka took place in the 1999 ODI WC – a feat which took 16 more years to overpower.
This article lists the top ten instances of a batsman scoring the most runs in an ODI within a calendar year.
Most ODI Runs by a Player in a Calendar Year
| Player | Year | Inns | Runs | Avg | SR | HS | 100/50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sachin Tendulkar (IND) | 1998 | 33 | 1894 | 65.31 | 102.15 | 143 | 9/7 |
| Sourav Ganguly (IND) | 1999 | 41 | 1767 | 46.5 | 76 | 183 | 4/10 |
| Rahul Dravid (IND) | 1999 | 43 | 1761 | 46.34 | 75.16 | 153 | 6/8 |
| Sachin Tendulkar (IND) | 1996 | 32 | 1611 | 53.7 | 82.4 | 137 | 6/9 |
| Matthew Hayden (AUS) | 2007 | 30 | 1601 | 59.29 | 89.19 | 181* | 5/6 |
| Saeed Anwar (PAK) | 1996 | 36 | 1595 | 51.45 | 91.56 | 115 | 3/10 |
| Shubman Gill (IND) | 2023 | 29 | 1584 | 63.36 | 105.45 | 208 | 5/9 |
| Sourav Ganguly (IND) | 2000 | 32 | 1579 | 56.39 | 82.75 | 144 | 7/6 |
| Rohit Sharma (IND) | 2019 | 27 | 1490 | 57.3 | 89.92 | 159 | 7/6 |
| Martin Guptill (NZ) | 2015 | 32 | 1489 | 55.14 | 96.56 | 237* | 4/8 |
| Mark Waugh (AUS) | 1999 | 36 | 1468 | 44.48 | 75.59 | 106 | 2/11 |
| Gary Kirsten (SA) | 2000 | 36 | 1467 | 44.45 | 73.2 | 115 | 2/13 |
| Virat Kohli (IND) | 2017 | 26 | 1460 | 76.84 | 99.11 | 131 | 6/7 |
| Gary Kirsten (SA) | 1996 | 29 | 1442 | 57.68 | 83.64 | 188* | 6/4 |
| Sachin Tendulkar (IND) | 2007 | 32 | 1425 | 47.5 | 85.58 | 100* | 1/13 |
Want to see who tops the charts in other formats? Check out the same record for Test cricket and T20Is here.
Key Insights
The feat of “1500+ ODI runs in a calendar year” has been achieved eight times in world cricket, in which Sachin and Sourav have two entries each.
Shubman Gill in 2023 was super strong and showed a glimpse of breaking Sachin’s feat after 25 years, but couldn’t.
Sachin also accomplished the shorter milestone of 1000 ODI runs in a calendar year, seven times, which is again a feat that is not overcome by any other.
Virat also has had seven “1000+ ODI runs in a calendar year” stints and is expected to break through soon.
Sachin’s average and strike rate in the 1998 season are also the calendar-year-bests among the above list of in-form batters’ extraordinary seasons.
Once again, Sachin’s nine centuries in the 50-over format in 1998 are the highest any batter has achieved within 365 days. What a year he had!
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