4) Brendon McCullum (New Zealand)
The Kiwi skipper Brendon McCullum with 1164 runs in 15 innings of 8 tests sits at no. 4 position in the list. He averages 72.75 and has a strike rate of 72.56 in the year 2014.
In the Boxing Day test against Sri Lanka he achieved another feat of becoming the fastest New Zealander to score a half century (45 balls) and a century (73 balls) and also the first Kiwi batsman to score 1,000 test runs in 2014.
He also hit maximum number of sixes (33) in a calendar year surpassing Adam Gilchrist who hit 22 sixes in 2005. Though he was dimissed at the score of 195 off 202 balls, he finished with 11 sixes in his innings, just 1 short of Wasim Akram who holds the record of most sixes (12) in a test innings and secondly he also missed the chance of becoming the fastest Kiwi batsman to score double century.
He became the first New Zealand batsman to score a triple hundred in test cricket after he smashed 302 runs against India in the month of February.
McCullum's innings was the highest score for a New Zealand batsman in a Test innings, overtaking Martin Crowe's 299 against Sri Lanka in 1991. He became the 24th batsman in the history of Test cricket to score a triple-hundred and join this exclusive club. He also achieved the feat of becoming the second-ever New Zealand batsman to cross the 200-run mark in a Test innings thrice, after Stephen Fleming.
He had a brilliant performance in the recent Pakistan test series in Abu Dhabi where he scored another double century (202) in just 188 deliveries and led the team to the victory in third test and level the series 1-1. He hit second highest number of 11 sixes in his innings, thus becoming the third player with Mathew Hayden and Nathan Astle.
This was his third double-hundred in 2014, following his two against India at home in February, making him the fourth batsmen to score three or more double-hundreds in a year.
He shared a 297 runs stand with Kane Williamson to post the New Zealand's highest total of 690 against Pakistan ever.
