This list of first-class cricket records includes some of the greatest team and individual performances ever seen in the sport. Cricket’s nature is to create extensive data and statistics, the list must be selected. Season and career records (such as most runs or wickets in a season, and most runs or wickets in a lifetime) are included, as well as for instance records.
In this article, let’s have a look at the highest batting average in first-class cricket.
Top 5 batsmen with the highest batting average in first-class cricket (min: 2000 runs)
1. Don Bradman (95.14)
Bradman stands out from the rest of the cricketing greats because of one statistic: his batting average of 99.94. No one has even come close to beating his mark in the decades since he last pitched. No other batter has a batting average of higher than 65 in Tests (minimum 15 innings) on the list of the highest career batting averages. While playing against England in the final innings of his career, he only needed four runs to reach a batting average of 100. Unfortunately, he was bowled for a duck by Eric Hollies, bringing the total to 99.94, which is an iconic, magnificent score for any cricket fan.
2. Sarfaraz Khan (80.42)
At the juvenile age of 24, Sarfaraz Khan currently averages over 80 in first-class cricket, with seven hundred and 2,252 runs to his record. At a minimum of 2000 runs, only Sir Don Bradman averages greater than Sarfaraz Khan in first-class cricket. In his previous 13 Ranji Trophy matches, Sarfaraz has scored six hundred, including a triple century and two double centuries. It’s his seventh hundred after his 153 against Uttarakhand in the 2022 Ranji Trophy quarter-final.
3. Vijay Merchant (71.64)
Even though his Test average was only 47.72, Vijay Merchant is next in line to Sarfaraz Khan, with a first-class average of 71.64. He mustered thousands of runs on his home pitches, and on his two tours of England, ten years apart, he displayed world-class skills in batting, piling up over 4000 runs on the two tours combined. On October 27, 1987, Merchant died of a heart attack in Bombay, his hometown. He was 76 years old at the time. He was a brilliant college cricketer who achieved a twin century in a match when he was just 15 years old.
4. George Headley (69.86)
Headley amassed 2,190 Test runs at an average of 60.83 and 9,921 first-class runs at an average of 69.86 in his career. He even joined the English County League later in his career, but he was unable to reclaim his legacy. In 1934, he was named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year.
5. Bahir Shah (69.02)
Last on the list is the Afghan cricketer Bahir Shah with an average of 69.02, mustering a total of 2,544 runs. On October 20, 2017, he made his first-class debut for Speen Ghar Region in the 2017–18 Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament, reaching 256 runs without being dismissed in the first innings. It was his second-highest debut score, and he became the 17th player in first-class history to achieve a double century. He made a century in both innings in his third first-class encounter the following month, reaching 111 and 116 respectively. He was picked to Afghanistan’s team for the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup in December 2017. His future appears to be quite promising.
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