Virender Sehwag becomes 5th Indian to complete 8000 Test runs

India's flamboyant opener Virender Sehwag has completed 8000 Test runs when he took a single off Peter Siddle-delivery on Day 2 of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.

He achieved this feat when he scored his 20th run with a single off a Siddle-delivery.

He is the 23rd player and the fifth Indian to accomplish the feat. Sachin Tendulkar (15,184), Rahul Dravid (13,119), Sunil Gavaskar (10,122), VVS Laxman (8626) and Virender Sehwag (8047) are the top Indian run-scorers in Tests.

Sehwag's feat of reaching 8,000 runs in 160 innings is the fifth quickest in Tests - the four quickest being Kumar Sangakkara (152), Sachin Tendulkar (154), Garry Sobers (157) and Rahul Dravid (158).

In terms of Tests taken, Sehwag's feat of reaching 8,000 runs in 93 Tests is the fourth quickest. The record is held by Sangakkara (91) and Sobers (91), followed by Matthew Hayden (92), Sehwag (93), Rahul Dravid (94), Brian Lara (94), Sunil Gavaskar (95) and Tendulkar (96).

Sehwag also went on to score a half-century against Australia. Sehwag's 31st Test fifty is his ninth against Australia. This is also his fourth on the Australian soil. He took 59 balls and scored five boundaries to bring up his half-century.

Sehwag (67), playing in his only second Test at MCG, has registered his second highest innings at this venue, next only to the 195 in December 2003 - an innings embellished with 25 fours and five sixes.

Sehwag's aforesaid innings is his highest in Tests this year, bettering the 60 against the West Indies at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai in November.

Sehwag, for the first time, has recorded three innings of 50-plus in succession in Australia - 63 & 151 at Adelaide in January 2008 and 67 at Melbourne.

In just 8 Tests in Australia, Sehwag has completed 900 runs at an average of 60.00, including two hundreds and four fifties.