Credit: Google
There are great cricketing lists. Then there are amazing cricketing lists but only a few, where it comes to batters, specifically speaking, that tend to underline the greatness and capabilities of batters such as the one that's strictly about players with 7000+ Test runs on home soil. Surely, playing at home is something that can be counted among the biggest advantages where it comes to batters for no other reason but that of familiarity of pitches and the habit that one develops of playing on those, especially having grinded on these wickets in one's domestic level playing days and the related times.
But even then to be counted among players with 7000+ Test runs on home soil is not something that could be accorded any less importance than say a bowler who thrives and collects between 200 to 250 Test match wickets at home. Batting at home is still about holding the fort and scoring runs whilst doing so and can that ever come easy in international cricket which is so arduous at times?
List of players with 7000+ Test runs on home soil
Ricky Ponting: 7578 runs at home
Truth be told, there's hardly any surprise about the fact that someone like Ricky Ponting finds himself on the amazing list of players with 7000+ Test runs on home soil. Not just an amazing team player who always led from the front with the bat, and formed part of a great bygone era comprising the Waugh brothers, Hayden, Gilchrist, and company, but Ponting was also an iconic captain (who won 48 out of 77 Tests).
Ricky Ponting's ability to bat long and bat aggressively typically epitomized the quintessential Australian winning spirit and that's respected even to this day.
Sachin Tendulkar: 7216 runs at home
The god, the legend, the little master and a maestro whose heroics actually further raised the canvass of greatness surrounding cricket on the whole; there are always myriad adjectives that spring to mind almost instantly when one notes Sachin Tendulkar, a huge name where it comes to players with 7000+ Test runs on home soil.
Tendulkar, thus far, the only batter to score 100 international centuries and therefore, the most by any Indian batter ever, scored heaps of runs during his time in varying Indian sub-continental conditions, in which he faced them all - King Curtly to Warne, Murali to Walsh, Donald to Akram, Pollock to Klusener and other than them, many other world-beating bowlers. For intance, McGrath - and yet remained an icon of the game.
Mahela Jayawardene: 7167 runs at home
The great Mahela Jayawardene stands alongside other Sri Lankan heroes such as Sanath Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva and not to forget his very close friend Kumar Sangakkara as among the players with 7000+ Test runs on home soil. This too, is a name that shouldn't be considered that surprising.
His proclivity to time the ball gracefully, change gears while batting and hold the fort against top Sri Lankan opponents have always benefited his nation. Rather more interestingly, in the post - Jayasuriya, Ranatunga and De Silva era, it was Jayawardene's sublime batting that helped Sri Lanka still assert itself as a force to reckon with in the sport it once supplemented with great world-beating names.
Jacques Kallis: 7035 runs at home
How could a legend like Jacques Kallis, also nicknamed and rightly so - King Kallis - not be on the list of players with 7000+ Test runs on home soil. For his astute understanding of the game, disciplined bowling that was underlined by the ability to be naggingly accurate and that techincally correct style of batting, Kallis flayed attacks and propelled South Africa to advantageous situations.
Kallis's abilty to bat for long periods of time, a facet that finds mention alongside other test greats such as Dravid, Amla, and Mo Younus further solidifies his legend. He scored 13200-plus overall Test match runs.
Joe Root: 7005* runs at home
Class, elegance and solidity in one complete monumental form presents the picture of Joe Root, who has already scored 13,000 plus Test match runs alongside 36 centuries in the format.
Which is why there's less of a surprise and a sigh of assurance to note the fact that the tall right hander, such an all time legend of the game finds himself alongside the list of players with 7000+ Test runs on home soil.
Even in the current third Test of the five-match series for England versus India at Lord's in London, Joe Root just completed another well-compiled century before being dismissed. And there are two more contests and another innings in the ongoing Test left in what's to come.
