Most runs in WTC history: Joe Root, Marnus Labuschagne lead the way

The World Test Championship, the premier competition in Test cricket, involves a two-year cycle where teams will play Test matches against others with the top two teams in the points table at the end of the cycle contesting in the Final.

The current edition of the WTC began with the Ashes series between England and Australia in June 2023 with the Final being scheduled in June 2025 at England.

India is the only team to have played in consecutive Finals of the WTC in 2021 and 2023 but unfortunately ended up on the losing side on both occasions. The Men in Blue lead the charts in the WTC 2023-2025 edition too and are in pole position to qualify for a historic third-straight Final in 2025.

WTC has given Test cricket a much-needed fillip and context that it has been searching for long. With points up for grabs in every match, teams have started pushing for wins irrespective of the result of the series. 

Batters have also started to become more positive with teams preferring a win over a draw. As a result, they have piled on the runs in the longest format, in quick time too, after the introduction of the WTC.

In this article, we glance through the list of batters with the most runs in the history of the WTC.

Most runs in WTC history: List of players with most runs in the World Test Championship

Joe Root | 4948 runs

Joe Root leads the way in the list of top scorers in the history of the WTC after it was introduced in 2019. The England batter has amassed 4948 runs from 57 matches, including 16 hundreds and 20 fifties, at an impressive average of 52.08. 

Root finished second on the list of top-scorers in the inaugural edition of the WTC from 2019 to 2021 before jumping to the top spot in the next edition. In the current edition too, he is on top of the pile with 1373 runs from just 15 matches.

Root made history by becoming the England batter with the most Test Hundreds when he scored centuries in both innings of the second Test against Sri Lanka in August 2024 to move to 34 centuries in the longest format of the game.

Marnus Labuschagne | 3904 runs

Marnus Labuschagne is second on the list of top run-getters in the history of the WTC with 3904 runs from 45 matches at an average of 52.05. The Aussie has also scored 11 centuries in the WTC.

Labuschagne, who came into the side as a concussion substitute for Steve Smith in the 2019 Ashes series against England, received the opportunity that came his way with both hands. He finished as the top-scorer in the first WTC cycle from 2019 to 2021 with 1675 runs at an astonishing average of 72.82.

Labuschagne also played a key role in taking Australia to the WTC title in 2023 finishing third in the list of top run-scorers in that cycle.

Steve Smith | 3486 runs

Steve Smith, with 3486 runs from 45 matches, is third on the list of players with the most runs in the history of the WTC. Smith has also scored nine hundreds and 17 fifties at an average of 50.52 in the World Test Championship.

Smith was third in the list of top run-getters in the first WTC cycle and also played a crucial role in the Final of the WTC 2023 to help Australia beat India. He scored a brilliant century in the first innings and along with Travis Head batted India out of the contest.

Ben Stokes | 3101 runs

Ben Stokes is fourth on the list of batters with the most runs in the WTC with 3101 runs from 48 matches at an average of 37.81. The southpaw has seven hundreds and 16 half-centuries to his name in the competition.

Stokes’ superhuman effort, scoring an unbeaten 135, at Headingley where he single-handedly won the 2019 Ashes Test against Australia by a solitary wicket was one for the ages. 

The England captain almost repeated the act in the Lord’s Test in Ashes 2023 but was dismissed for 155 as England fell short by 43 runs.

Photo credit: Imago