3 Batters With Most Runs In Kanpur Tests

3 highest run-getters in Tests at Green Park Stadium, Kanpur (BCCI)

The Green Park Stadium in Kanpur holds a historical significance to Indian cricket. In January 1952, the stadium hosted its first-ever Test match, thus making it one of the most esteemed and oldest Test venues of India. To date, the stadium has hosted 23 Test matches, and has been graced by some of the biggest names from India’s rich batting lineage.

Here we take a look at three Indian players who have tallied the highest number of Test runs at the venue.

3. Mohammad Azharuddin – 543 runs in 3 Tests

Mohammad Azharuddin – 543 runs in 3 Tests (BCCI)

Former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin flogged a century in each of his three Test appearances at the Green Park Stadium. Within a month of his international debut, he whacked a match-saving 122 against England by occupying over six hours at the crease. He belted 16 boundaries in his 270-ball marathon and helped India set up 553-8d upfront.

Azharuddin also notched up the highest score of his Test career at the venue by shaping 199 runs against Sri Lanka in December 1986. In his third and final match in Kanpur in December 1996, he scored an unbeaten 163* against South Africa to set up India’s 280-run win.

Overall, the 99-Test veteran scored 543 runs in here in just five innings at an astounding batting average of 181, and he converted three of his four fifty-plus scores into centuries.

2. Sunil Gavaskar – 629 runs in 9 Tests

Sunil Gavaskar – 629 runs in 9 Tests (MCA)

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar raided 629 runs from 14 innings spanning nine Test matches at Kanpur’s Green Park Stadium during his playing days. The legendary batter accumulated his runs at an average of 44.92, and listed one century and five additional scores of fifty or more in the process.

Sunil Gavaskar tallied the last of his 34 Test hundreds at the venue, doing so against Sri Lanka in December 1986 in a match-saving cause. The all-time batting great made 176 runs in the lone Indian innings of the match from 302 balls with 22 elegant boundaries. The match also marked one of the final Tests of his illustrious 125-match career, which concluded three months later in Bengaluru.

1. Gundappa Viswanath – 776 runs in 7 Tests

Gundappa Viswanath – 776 runs in 7 Tests (BCCI)

In just seven Test matches at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur, legendary Indian player Gundappa Viswanath accrued 776 runs at an astronomical average of 86.22, i.e., more than double his career Test average of 41.93. Viswanath also made his debut at the venue and celebrated the occasion by mounting a match-saving 137 against Australia back in November 1969.

He went on to make two more tons at the venue until his last Test match there in 1982, i.e., a few months before his final match for Team India. In addition to Viswanath’s three Test centuries, the cricketer made four additional half-centuries on the Green Park surface.

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