Most Double Centuries in Test Cricket: Top 20 Scorers of All Time

Don Bradman played 52 Test matches and scored 200 or more twelve times. Put that next to the fact that fewer than fifty batters in the entire history of the format have managed even one double century, and the scale of what he did starts to come into focus. A hundred is the accepted mark of a good innings. Two hundred is something most great players never reach at all, let alone repeat.

What Makes a Double Century So Rare

Getting to 200 in a Test innings takes more than good form on the day. A batter has to:

• Bat for many hours (typically five or more) without being dismissed
• Maintain concentration through fatigue and opposition pressure
• Avoid all forms of dismissal — and in Test cricket, the margins are fine
• Have the team situation allow them to continue batting after 100

Most batters who reach a century are content to have played a fine innings. The ones who keep going past it, again and again, are in a different category entirely.

Batters With the Most Double Centuries in Test History

Batter	Country	Double Centuries
Don Bradman	Australia	12
Kumar Sangakkara	Sri Lanka	11
Brian Lara	West Indies	9
Mahela Jayawardene	Sri Lanka	7
Wally Hammond	England	7
Virender Sehwag	India	6
Ross Taylor	New Zealand	5
Martin Crowe	New Zealand	4
Len Hutton	England	4
Graeme Smith	South Africa	4
Matthew Hayden	Australia	4
Gary Sobers	West Indies	4
Ricky Ponting	Australia	4
Virat Kohli	India	3
Hashim Amla	South Africa	3

Note: Figures reflect career totals at retirement for retired players. Active players’ tallies may have changed.

Bradman: The Unreachable Standard

Nobody else on this list is close to Bradman, and the gap looks even stranger given how short his career actually was. Twelve double centuries came out of just 52 Tests, a rate no batter since, active or retired, has come near matching. His career average of 99.94 gets cited more often, but the double-century count tells the same story from a different angle: this was sustained, repeated dominance, not a handful of good days.

His 334 against England at Headingley in 1930 was a world record when he made it, and he passed 300 in a Test innings on two separate occasions.

Kumar Sangakkara’s Remarkable Tally

Sangakkara’s 11 double centuries put him closer to Bradman than anyone else in the sport’s history. During a series against South Africa in 2006 he scored four consecutive centuries, a run of form that says as much about his consistency as any single number could. His 319 against Bangladesh sits among the highest individual scores ever recorded in Test cricket.

Brian Lara’s Record-Breaking Innings

Two of Lara’s nine double centuries are among the most famous innings cricket has produced. His 375 against England in 1994 took the world-record score away from Gary Sobers after decades, and his 400 not out in 2004 took it back from Matthew Hayden, who had briefly held it with 380 against Zimbabwe. Both innings get studied less for the size of the number and more for how little Lara’s quality dropped off across six-plus hours at the crease.

What All These Batters Share

Looking down this list, a few patterns repeat:

• Technique — they can play both aggressive and defensive cricket to order
• Temperament — they maintain focus through very long innings without losing concentration
• Physical fitness — batting for six or more hours requires endurance as well as skill
• Hunger for big scores — the best batters accelerate after reaching 100, rather than relaxing