Steve Smith breaks 73-year-old record, becomes fastest to 7000 runs in Tests

Australian batsman Steve Smith on Saturday became the fastest man to score 7,000 Test runs, breaking a record that had stood since 1946, while surpassing Donald Bradman to become Australia's 11th highest scorer.

Smith took a single off Muhammad Musa during the second Test against Pakistan in Adelaide to reach the milestone and take possession of a record held for 73 years by English great Wally Hammond. Wally Hammond reached the mark in 131 innings, while Smith, who played his first Test nine years ago, made the grade in his 126th.

Virender Sehwag of India is the third fastest in 134 innings.

"The fastest to 7K - you're a star Steve Smith!," tweeted Cricket Australia.

Steve Smith also passed Donald Bradman's 6,996 Test runs. It took Smith 70 Tests to do so, while Bradman needed only 52.

The 30-year-old's heroics at the Ashes in England this year saw him widely labelled the best since Bradman, considered Test cricket's greatest ever, when he scored a mammoth 774 runs in just seven innings.

He had the opportunity to pass both Bradman and Hammond in the first Test against Pakistan in Brisbane, but fell for just four in a rare failure