Most hundreds in Test Cricket

Sachin Ramesh Tendulker who is hailed as modern cricket's most complete player and whose stroke play once reminded Late Sir Don Bradman of his own batting, a rare tribute, scored his 29th Test Century at Port of Spain Trinidad on 20th April 2002 and thus equaled the record of legendary Sir Don. To date 17 batsmen have scored 20 or more centuries in Test Cricket and at the moment India's Sunil Gavaskar heads this list with 34 Test Centuries. 6 Australians, 5 Englishmen, 3 Indians, 2 West Indians, and one Pakistani currently enjoy the distinction of having scored 20 or more centuries in Tests.

A study of history of test centuries reveals following interesting facts:

• Australia's Charles Bannerman was the first batsman to hit a test century when he scored 165 Not-out in the inaugural Test match at Melbourne in 1876 - 77.
• England's Hon. F. S. Jackson was the first batsman to score 5 Test Centuries (5thv Australia 113 at Manchester in 1905)
• Sir Jack Hobbs was the first batsman to score 10 Test Centuries (10th - v South Africa, 211 at Lords in 1924) and also the first to score 15 Test Centuries (15th - v Australia, 142 at Melbourne in 1928-29)
• Sir Donald George Bradman was the first batsman to score 20 (20th - 102 v England at Lords in 1938), 25 (25th - 132 v India at Melbourne in 1947-48) and 29 Centuries (29th - 173 v England at Leeds in 1948) in Test Cricket.
• Sunil Gavaskar was the first batsman to score 30 (30th - 236* v West Indies at Madras in 1983-84) and 34 centuries (34th - 103 v Australia at Bombay in 1986-87) in Test Cricket.
• Below is the list of batsmen having scored 20 or more centuries in Test Cricket.

Name          Country     Centuries Test Innings
SM Gavaskar   India       34        125  214
DG Bradman    Australia   29         52  80
SR Tendulkar  India       29         93  149
AR Border     Australia   27        156  265
SR Waugh      Australia   27        148  233
GS Sobers     West Indies 26         93  160
GS Chappell   Australia   24         87  151
IVA Richards  West Indies 24        121  182
Javed Miandad Pakistan    23        124  189
Azharuddin    India       22         99  147
GF Boycott    England     22        108  193
MC Cowdrey    England     22        114  188
WR Hammond    England     22         85  140
DC Boon       Australia   21        107  190
RN Harvey     Australia   21         79  137
KF Barrington England     20         82  131
GA Gooch      England     20        118  215