5 Unbreakable records in international cricket

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Cricket keeps handing out jaw-droppers, but some records sit so far beyond reach they’ve become part of the sport’s folklore. Here are five that look genuinely unbreakable, with the why behind each mark, and the practical reasons modern players are extremely unlikely to topple them.

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1) Sir Don Bradman — Test batting average: 99.94

Bradman’s 99.94 in Test cricket isn’t just a number; it’s a statistical gulf. No other player with a substantial Test career even comes close. The nearest long-career averages are decades behind him. The modern game’s volume of cricket, shifting formats and specialist short-form training actually make sustaining hyper-high Test averages harder, not easier. 

Bradman’s figure benefits from a unique mix of incredible consistency, the nature of interwar cricket and an innings profile that rarely left him stranded. It’s a number that tells you more about how extraordinary one player was than how ordinary the rest have been.

2) Muttiah Muralitharan — 800 Test wickets (and 1,347 international wickets)

Muralitharan finished with 800 Test scalps, which is a landmark nobody else has even remotely matched and 1,347 international wickets across formats. The combination of longevity, relentless effectiveness, and a bowling craft (wrist and finger variations with heavy turn) made that possible. 

Modern workload management, rotating bowlers and fewer opportunities for any single bowler to dominate every format have shrunk the window in which someone could approach 800 Test wickets. Simply put, to reach 800 you need extreme skill plus a very long, uninterrupted run in Test cricket, which is a rare alignment in 21st-century schedules.

3) Sachin Tendulkar — 100 international centuries

Tendulkar’s century list of 100 international hundreds across Tests and ODIs is not just volume, it’s cross-format mastery. He reached 100 by combining consistency, fitness and a playing window that let him pile up matches across formats for more than two decades. 

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Modern players can be prolific, but international schedules, rotation policies and the growing emphasis on the T20s make it unlikely someone will accumulate the same raw match time in Tests and ODIs to hit 100 centuries again. Even the greatest current run-getters are chasing innings totals and milestones, but Tendulkar’s century count remains a different class.

4) Jim Laker — 19 wickets in a Test match (19 for 90, Old Trafford 1956)

Laker’s 19/90 in one Test against Australia is cricket theatre, 9/37 in the first innings and 10/53 in the second. The feat requires taking virtually every wicket available across both innings, which is an almost preternatural dominance of a single match. 

Changing pitch standards, stronger batting depth worldwide, and current match management (captains are quicker to use multiple bowlers) make a 19-wicket haul virtually impossible today. Even in spinner-friendly conditions, you’d expect the wickets to be shared. Laker’s mark looks like a one-off that will stand.

5) Rahul Dravid — never dismissed for a golden duck in Tests (286 innings)

Dravid’s career contains many tidy-proof lines, but one striking trivia stat is that across 286 Test innings, he was never out for a first-ball duck. It’s more than novelty. It underlines his touch, concentration and the tiny margins by which elite batsmen avoid catastrophe. 

That streak depends on temperament, technique, and a huge sample of innings, recreating it exactly would demand the same rare blend. Given how many players now debut earlier, play across formats, and face extreme new-ball pace and movement, a long-career golden-duck-free record at Dravid’s scale is extremely unlikely to be replicated.

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