Most centuries in international cricket: the full list, and why the totals disagree

Sachin Tendulkar holds the record for the most centuries in international cricket with 100, made up of 51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs. Virat Kohli is second on 85 and the only batter within twenty of the record. Ricky Ponting, retired since 2012, is third on 71.

Those three numbers are what most readers come for. The more useful answer is that this list changes shape completely depending on which format you look at, and that a good number of the pages publishing it are quietly out of date. Both of those are things you can check for yourself in about ten seconds, and this page shows you how.

Most centuries in international cricket: the full top 20

Figures are complete to 19 July 2026. Players still active in at least one international format are marked with an asterisk.

Player	Country	Test	ODI	T20I	Total
Sachin Tendulkar	India	51	49	0	100
Virat Kohli*	India	30	54	1	85
Ricky Ponting	Australia	41	30	0	71
Kumar Sangakkara	Sri Lanka	38	25	0	63
Jacques Kallis	South Africa	45	17	0	62
Joe Root*	England	41	20	0	61
Hashim Amla	South Africa	28	27	0	55
Mahela Jayawardene	Sri Lanka	34	19	1	54
Brian Lara	West Indies	34	19	0	53
Rohit Sharma*	India	12	34	5	51
David Warner	Australia	26	22	1	49
Steve Smith*	Australia	37	12	0	49
Rahul Dravid	India	36	12	0	48
Kane Williamson*	New Zealand	33	15	0	48
AB de Villiers	South Africa	22	25	0	47
Chris Gayle	West Indies	15	25	2	42
Sanath Jayasuriya	Sri Lanka	14	28	0	42
Shivnarine Chanderpaul	West Indies	30	11	0	41
Younis Khan	Pakistan	34	7	0	41
Matthew Hayden	Australia	30	10	0	40
Ross Taylor	New Zealand	19	21	0	40

The check that tells you if a century list is coherent

A century table has one property that makes it unusually easy to audit: every player’s three format columns must add up to that player’s total, and the three columns must each add up to the grand total. If either fails, someone has updated one cell and not the others.

Run it on the table above. The Test column sums to 650, the ODI column to 482, and the T20I column to 10. Add those and you get 1,142, which is exactly what you get if you sum the totals column instead. Every individual row reconciles too, from Tendulkar’s 51 plus 49 to Ross Taylor’s 19 plus 21.

Format	Centuries in this top 20	Share
Test	650	56.9%
ODI	482	42.2%
T20I	10	0.9%
All formats	1,142	100%

This is worth doing because the arithmetic catches a specific and common error. When a batter scores a hundred, the aggregator updates the headline total, and the format breakdown further down the page gets missed. A row that no longer adds up is a row that has been half updated.

Why the totals you see elsewhere disagree

Search for this list and you will find pages putting Rohit Sharma on 50 and Joe Root on 60. Neither is a mistake exactly. They are snapshots, taken before two innings that moved the numbers.

Root reached 20 ODI hundreds on 27 January 2026, an unbeaten 111 from 108 balls in the series decider against Sri Lanka at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, which took him to 61. Rohit made his 34th ODI hundred against England at Lord’s on 19 July 2026, his first at the ground, which took him to 51.

Rohit’s came on the same day this table was last verified, which is why so many pages still carry the older figure. So the arithmetic check tells you whether a list is internally coherent. It cannot tell you whether it is current. For that you need the date the page states, and a page that states no date at all is the one to distrust.

Tendulkar’s 100 required two careers, not one

The record has stood since March 2012 because of an unusual shape to Tendulkar’s career. He was one of the great Test century makers and one of the great ODI century makers at the same time, and almost nobody else has managed both at once.

Two players in the top 20 have 45 or more Test centuries: Tendulkar on 51 and Kallis on 45. Two have 45 or more in ODIs: Kohli on 54 and Tendulkar on 49. Tendulkar is the only name appearing on both lists. To reach 100 you effectively have to be among the three or four best century makers of all time in one format, and then do it again in a second.

Look at how lopsided everyone else is. Kallis made 45 Test hundreds and 17 in ODIs. Younis Khan made 34 and 7. Jayasuriya went the other way, 14 and 28. Tendulkar’s 51 and 49 is close to an even split, and among the top ten only Hashim Amla’s 28 and 27 matches it for balance. That symmetry is the record, more than the round number is.

Kohli already holds the record that matters most in the chase

Kohli’s 85 sits 15 short of Tendulkar. In the format he still plays, he passed him some time ago.

His 54 ODI hundreds are the most anyone has made, ahead of Tendulkar’s 49 and Rohit’s 34. So the honest answer to “who has scored the most centuries” depends entirely on whether the question means all cricket or one format, and the aggregate total hides a record Kohli already owns. Our full breakdown of the most centuries in ODI cricket has the rest of that list.

The complication is how rarely he now bats. Kohli retired from T20 internationals after India won the 2024 T20 World Cup and from Tests on 12 May 2025, finishing with 123 matches, 9,230 runs and 30 hundreds in the format. He plays ODIs only, and India play a modest number of them in a year. Fifteen centuries is a long way at that rate, and while he could close some of the gap, the arithmetic of the schedule is now working against him rather than the arithmetic of his form. More of his numbers sit in our guide to the records Virat Kohli holds.

Root is chasing the same record from the opposite end

Root is 24 behind Kohli and, unlike Kohli, still plays every format England ask him to. His 61 breaks down as 41 Test hundreds and 20 in ODIs, almost the mirror image of Kohli’s 30 and 54.

Those 41 Test centuries put him level with Ponting, and behind only Tendulkar’s 51 and Kallis’s 45. He is climbing in the format that offers two innings a match and the most hundreds on this whole table, which is the more productive place to be chasing from. The most centuries in Test cricket list is where his progress will show first.

Neither man is likely to reach 100. The interesting question is which of the two finishes higher, and it is genuinely open: Kohli has a 24 century head start and barely bats, Root bats constantly and started later.

The T20I column is almost empty, and that is structural

Ten of the 1,142 centuries in the table above came in T20 internationals. That is under one per cent, in the format that has reshaped almost everything else about the sport.

Only five of the 21 players listed have a T20I hundred at all. Rohit has five, Chris Gayle two, and Kohli, Jayawardene and David Warner one each. The explanation is mechanical rather than mysterious. A T20I innings is 20 overs, an opener who bats through faces perhaps 60 balls, and a century in that window requires a strike rate that would be reckless in either other format.

One correction while we are here, because it is stated wrongly almost everywhere. Rohit’s five T20I hundreds are not the outright record. Glenn Maxwell equalled him with an unbeaten 120 from 55 balls against the West Indies at Adelaide Oval in February 2024, and the two share it. Phil Salt and Suryakumar Yadav are next on four. We keep the full T20I century list updated separately.

Frequently asked questions

Who has scored the most centuries in international cricket? Sachin Tendulkar, with 100 across Tests and ODIs. No other player has passed 90.

Has anyone else reached 100 international centuries? No. Tendulkar remains the only player to do it. The hundredth came on 16 March 2012, a 114 from 147 balls against Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur during the Asia Cup, and it was his 49th in ODIs on top of the 51 he had already made in Tests.

Who has the most international centuries among active players? Virat Kohli on 85, followed by Joe Root on 61 and Rohit Sharma on 51. Our page on the active players with the most international centuries tracks that group on its own.

Who has the most ODI centuries? Kohli, with 54, ahead of Tendulkar on 49.

Who has the most Test centuries? Tendulkar, with 51, ahead of Kallis on 45 and then Ponting and Root level on 41.

How many centuries do you need to make this top 20? Forty, which is currently where Matthew Hayden and Ross Taylor sit.

More cricket records and lists

Featured photo: AFP / MUNIR UZ ZAMAN