We are a little over a week away from the start of the ICC Champions Trophy which is being played in Pakistan and UAE. The tournament gets a reboot for the first time since 2017, as the top eight ranked teams try to fight it out to claim that coveted trophy. There have been eight editions of the ICC Champions Trophy so far, which have seen some stellar batting and bowling performances.
Plenty of batters have made their name through this competition, while the already established players have augmented their reputation with solid performances in the Champions Trophy across the years.
Here’s a look at the top 5 run scorers in Champions Trophy history:
1. Chris Gayle
The Universe Boss used to be a feared batter in the noughties, and the wrath of his aggression was felt by plenty of teams in the Champions Trophy. Gayle is the leading run-getter in the history of this competition, scoring 791 runs at an average of 52.71 with a strike rate of 88.71. He has scored three centuries in this competition, and was the second highest run getter for West Indies in the 2004 Champions Trophy when they won the tournament.
2. Mahela Jayawardene
The former Sri Lankan captain would lead the run-scoring charts for most multi-nation tournaments in the 2000s and 2010s. Therefore, it is no surprise to see him second on this list, scoring 742 runs in 21 innings. Jayawardene averaged 41.22 in the Champions Trophy and was part of the Sri Lanka squad in 2002 when they shared the trophy with India due to a washout in the final. Jayawardene has five fifties in this competition, but never got a century.
3. Shikhar Dhawan
Nicknamed Mr. ICC, the hard-hitting left-handed opener was India’s man for the big tournaments. He was a cut above the rest when it came to these multi-format tournaments. Dhawan was the leading run scorer in the 2013 and 2017 Champions Trophy, where India won the trophy and reached the final, respectively.
Dhawan was also the Player of the Series in the 2013 edition. Despite playing just 10 innings in the Champions Trophy, Dhawan amassed a whopping 701 runs at a staggering average of 77.88. He scored three hundreds and three fifties in the competition.
4. Kumar Sangakkara
Another veteran of Sri Lankan cricket, it is no surprise to see the name of Kumar Sangakkara feature on this list of run-getters in the ICC Champions Trophy. Sangakkara has played 21 innings in the tournament, scoring 683 runs at an average of 37.94. He notched up four fifties and one knock of 134* against England in 2013. Just like Jayawardene, Sangakkara was also part of the 2002 squad of Sri Lanka which shared the Champions Trophy with India.
5. Sourav Ganguly
The Prince of Kolkata had a penchant for doing well on the big stage in the big tournaments for India. He featured in the Champions Trophy 1998, 2000, 2000, and 2004 for India. Ganguly played 11 innings in the competition and scored an impressive 665 runs.
The swashbuckling Indian batter had an average of 73.88 in this competition, at a good strike rate of 83.12. He scored three fifties and three hundreds in the Champions Trophy, with the highlight being 141 not out in the semi-final against South Africa in 2000. Ganguly was India’s captain in the victorious 2002 Champions Trophy, albeit a shared trophy.
