Virat Kohli may be considered the best batsman in the world at the moment, what with Steve Smith serving a one-year ban, but a latest statistic shows England's Jonny Bairstow as the most prolific batter on the planet. Keeper-batsman Bairstow scored a crucial 93 on Saturday to help England take command against India in the ongoing second Test at Lord's. This knock took the right-hander past Kohli's 1404 tally of runs across all formats in the year 2018. Bairstow now has 1482 runs in the calender year.

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On Saturday, Bairstow teamed up with all-rounder Chris Woakes to stitch an all-important 189-run partnership for the sixth wicket. While Woakes managed to register a hundred, Bairstow missed out narrowly.

Even so, Bairstow managed to achieve a commendable feat by becoming the leading run-scorer across all formats in the world. Indian captain Kohli will, however, have a chance to go past the Englishman when his team bat in the second innings at Lord's.

 

Here is the breakup of runs scored by Bairstow and Kohli in the year 2018

Tests

Bairstow: 445 runs in 7 matches

Kohli: 509 runs in 5 matches

ODIs

Bairstow: 970 runs in 19 matches

Kohli: 749 in 9 matches

T20Is

Bairstow: 67 runs in 4 matches

Kohli: 146 runs in 7 matches

Overall Average

Bairstow: 43.58

Kohli: 66.85

 

England captan Joe Root is third on the list of highest run-scorers in 2018 at the moment. The classy right-hander has amassed 1357 runs at an impressive average of 50.25.

Next on the list is Pakistan's Fakhar Zaman. The opener is enjoying the best year of his young career, he recently became the first Pakistani to score an ODI double-hundred. Zaman has scored 1181 runs at a phenomenal average of 65.61.

 

India's Shikhar Dhawan, surprisingly, is sixth on the list. The opener has 1055 runs at an average of 42.20. Sadly for him, though, he has been left on the bench for the second Test against England.