Bairstow becomes second wicketkeeper-batsman to score 1000 runs in a year

England's Jonny Bairstow has become only the second-wicketkeeper batsman to breach the 1000-run mark in a calendar year. Bairstow achieved the feat during the first Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong to become the first player after 16 years to do so. Zimbabwe's Andy Flower did it back in the year 2000. He had come perilously close to breaching the margin the next year too but fell short of it by 67 runs.

Baistow has done something the likes of AB de Villiers, Adam Gilchrist and even Kumar Sangakkara haven't been able to. De Villiers comes the closest with 933 runs in 2013 while Sangakkara managed 891 runs during 2001. Gilchrist features in the list of highest run-scorers by a wicketkeeper batsman in a calendar year four times but has not surpassed his highest tally of 870 runs in 2001.

Bairstow continues to have a tremendous year with staggering numbers. In 11 matches, he has 1018 runs with three centuries and four fifties. With just 27 runs behind Flower 's tally of 1045 runs, Bairstow is primed to surpass him, most likely in this innings itself. England play six more Tests after the Chittagong Test and with the kind of form he is in, Bairstow looks set to score a lot more.

MS Dhoni and Budhi Kunderan are the only Indian wicketkeeper-batsmen to have scored over 500 runs in a calendar year. Dhoni has done so four times, with his highest being 749 runs in the year 2010.