Stats: Most not outs in Test cricket

Any amateur cricket fan would tell you that a batsman will be referred to as ‘not out’ if he comes out to bat and remains undismissed by the end of the innings. One may similarly describe a batsman as not out while the innings is still in progress and is denoted by an asterisk at the end of his score, for e.g., 100*.

A batsman staying not out until the end of the innings is one of the toughest jobs in cricket, and hence you wouldn’t find many frontline batsmen in the list. Bowlers, on the other hand, come into bat at the end of an innings and have a great chance of staying not out.

Curtly Ambrose (L) and Courtney Walsh

Here is the all-time list for the most number of not outs in Test cricket.

Rank	Number of Not Outs	Player	Time Period
1	61	CA Walsh	1984/85-2000/01
2	56	M Muralitharan	1992-2010
3	55	RGD Willis	1970/71-1984
4	52	CS Martin	2000/01-2012/13
5	51	GD McGrath	1993/94-2006/07
6	47	JM Anderson	2003-2013/14
7	46	SR Waugh	1986/87-2003/04
8	46	S Chanderpaul	1993/94-2014
9	45	M Ntini	1997/98-2009/10
10	44	AR Border	1978/79-1993/94
11	40	JH Kallis	1997/98-2012
12	39	LR Gibbs	1963-1975/76
13	39	BS Chandrasekhar	1964/65-1979
14	39	SM Pollock	1995/96-2006/07
15	35	DL Underwood	1966-1981/82
16	35	WPUJC Vaas	1994/95-2008/09
17	34	VVS Laxman	1996/97-2011/12
18	33	EJ Chatfield	1974/75-1988/89
19	33	AA Donald	1992/93-2001/02
20	33	Danish Kaneria	2000/01-2010
21	33	SR Tendulkar	1990-2012/13
22	32	A Kumble	1992/93-2007/08
23	32	RS Dravid	1996/97-2011
24	29	CEL Ambrose	1987/88-2000
25	29	PCR Tufnell	1990/91-2001

With legendary bowlers like Courtney Walsh, Muttiah Muralitharan and Glenn McGrath topping the list, the most notable batsmen are Steve Waugh and Shivnarine Chanderpaul who come in at No. 7 and No. 8 respectively and are tied at 46 not outs each, a pretty impressive feat to achieve. Former Australian captain and a top order batsman Allan Border completes the top 10.