Top 3 players with most international centuries in a single calendar year

Scoring centuries is an art that has been mastered by several players in the storied history of cricket. A few players like Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting and Kumar Sangakkara did that better than others, and racked up a huge tally of three-figure scores.

So far in 2019 Rohit Sharma leads the century-makers' list, as he has scored eight centuries across the three formats.

Here, we look at five players who've scored the highest number of centuries across formats in a single year.

Notable mentions: Aravinda de Silva (1997), Tillakaratne Dilshan (2009), Rahul Dravid (1999) and Hashim Amla (2010) hit 10 centuries in a single calendar year.

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#3 Ricky Ponting - (11 centuries in 2003)

Ricky Ponting

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting was a nightmare for bowlers all around the world. He had a knack of playing match-winning knocks on a consistent basis.

Ponting was one of the best players of the pull shot that cricket has ever seen. The two-time World Cup-winning captain ended his career as the third-highest run-getter across all formats, just behind Kumar Sangakkara and Sachin Tendulkar.

He had a stellar season in 2003 as he scored 2657 runs in 45 matches that year. He also hit 11 centuries in 2003 (six in Tests and five in ODIs), which earns him the third spot in this list.

#2 Virat Kohli - (11 centuries each in 2017 and 2018)

Virat Kohli

Over the years Virat Kohli has cemented his legacy as the best chaser in the history of cricket. These days he breaks records almost every time he plays a match.

Currently, Kohli has a batting average of over 50 in all three formats of the game. This stat clearly shows his immaculate levels of consistency.

Kohli was in imperious form in 2017 and 2018 as he hit 11 centuries each in both the years. He struck six Test centuries and five ODI centuries in 2017, and repeated the exact same numbers the very next year.

In 2019 Virat Kohli has scored six centuries so far.

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#1 Sachin Tendulkar - (12 centuries - 1998)

Sachin Tendulkar

1998 was arguably the most productive year of Sachin Tendulkar's international career. That year he became the first batsman to score over 2,500 runs in a calendar year. He also created the record for most ODI centuries in a single year - nine - in 1998.

Tendulkar was in tremendous form that year and ended up as the highest run-scorer (2541 runs) in the world across all formats. He hit 12 centuries - three in Tests to go with his nine in ODIs - in 1998 to occupy the pole position in this list.

Also see – World Test Championship Schedule