Best Ashes Batters of All Time: Runs, Averages and Records

Don Bradman is the best Ashes batter of all time by a distance: 5,028 runs at an average of 89.78 in 37 Tests against England, with 19 hundreds. Steve Smith is the best of the modern era, second on the all-time list with 3,703 runs at 56.10, and Jack Hobbs is England's highest Ashes run-scorer with 3,636. This page ranks the leading Ashes batters by runs and by average, through the 2025-26 series, and explains what set the best of them apart.

Most Runs in Ashes Tests

Ashes Tests only, through the 2025-26 series, from ESPNcricinfo's Ashes records.

The Highest Ashes Averages

Runs reward a long career; average shows who scored most heavily when they played. With a minimum of 20 innings:

The Best Ashes Batters

Don Bradman

Bradman made 974 runs in the 1930 series in England, still the most by anyone in an Ashes series, and scored 334 at Headingley that summer and 304 there four years later. He made 758 in 1934, 810 in 1936-37 and 680 in 1946-47, and finished with 19 Ashes hundreds, the most by anyone. No batter in any era has come close to his Ashes average.

Steve Smith

Smith has been the outstanding Ashes batter of the last decade. He made 774 runs at 110.57 in the 2019 series in England and 687 at 137.40 in 2017-18, including 239 at Perth, and he added 138 at Sydney in 2025-26. His 13 Ashes hundreds are second only to Bradman.

Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe

Hobbs made 12 Ashes hundreds in a career against Australia that ran from 1908 to 1930. He and Sutcliffe opened together for England in the 1920s, and Sutcliffe's average of 66.85 is the best by an England batter with 20 or more Ashes innings. Sutcliffe made 734 runs in 1924-25, with four hundreds.

Wally Hammond

Hammond's 905 runs in 1928-29 is the second-highest total in an Ashes series and the most by an England batter, and his 251 at Sydney in that series is among the highest Ashes scores.

Allan Border and Steve Waugh

Border and Waugh carried Australia from the lean years of the 1980s to the dominance of the 1990s. Waugh's 58.75 from 72 innings is the highest Ashes average of anyone with 50 or more innings apart from Bradman, and he made ten hundreds. Border made 3,222 runs and was not out 15 times, a sign of how often he held an innings together.

Len Hutton

Hutton's 364 at The Oval in 1938, made over more than 13 hours, is the highest individual score in Ashes history. He went on to captain England to the Ashes in 1953.

Joe Root

Root is the leading Ashes run-scorer still playing for England, with 2,828 runs. In 2025-26 he made 400 runs, including 138 not out at Brisbane and 160 at Sydney.

Ashes Batting in 2025-26

Travis Head was the leading run-scorer of the 2025-26 series with 629 runs at 62.90, including three hundreds, the first of them 123 from 83 balls to win the opening Test at Perth. Root was next with 400 and Harry Brook made 358. Australia won the series 4-1, as cricket.com.au reported from the final Test at Sydney. Our pages on the most Ashes centuries, the most runs in a single Ashes series and the best Ashes bowlers cover the rest of the record book.

FAQs: The Best Ashes Batters

Who has scored the most runs in the Ashes?
Don Bradman, with 5,028 runs in 37 Tests from 1928 to 1948.

Who is the best England batter in Ashes history?
Jack Hobbs has the most runs for England, 3,636, while Herbert Sutcliffe has the best average, 66.85.

Who has the most Ashes runs among current players?
Steve Smith, with 3,703, second only to Bradman. Joe Root leads England's current players with 2,828.

Who scored the most runs in the 2025-26 Ashes?
Travis Head, with 629 runs at 62.90.