Happy birthday, Sir Donald Bradman! The boy from Bowral would have turned 110 today. It is also a little over 70 years since he played his farewell Test, finishing his career with those indelible numbers: 52 Tests, 6,996 runs at an average of 99.94 with 29 hundreds.

To mark the occasion we've played a hypothetical: what if every batsman's career was limited to 52 Tests? How would the record books look then? Well – spoiler alert – Bradman would still be up top, a lot. In fact, more than he already is. But these numbers make for some fascinating reading…

Highest average after 52 Tests

Sir Donald Bradman (Aus) 99.94 (80 innings)

Herbert Sutcliffe (Eng) 61.85 (81 inns)

Sir Jack Hobbs (Eng) 60.21 (85 inns)

Steve Smith (Aus) 59.33 (96 inns)

Sir Leonard Hutton (Eng) 58.34 (93 inns)

Matthew Hayden (Aus) 58.25 (89 inns)

Sir Viv Richards (WI) 58.04 (80 inns)

Javed Miandad (Pak) 57.86 (83 inns)

Ken Barrington (Eng) 56.93 (84 inns)

Sunil Gavaskar (Ind) 56.90 (89 inns)

When new cricket fans discover Bradman's average for the first time, their first thought is clerical error. The term 'Bradmanesque' is now given to any player averaging close to Bradman's mark, but it's never one that sticks for long. Ask Adam Voges, Mike Hussey or Peter Handscomb. After 52 matches, it's the batting titans of the early 20th Century and a modern great who feature behind The Don when it comes to average. England's Herbert Sutcliffe (61.85) and Jack Hobbs (60.21) – the Bradman before Bradman – take spots No.2 & 3 respectively, while former Australia captain Steve Smith (59.33) is in 4th. Englishman Len Hutton (58.34) rounds out the top five. Of the quintet, Hobbs had the fewest 'not outs' – seven – the same number of ducks made by Bradman, the most in the prolific group. The next five features more batting greats; Hayden, Richards, Miandad, Barrington and Gavaskar. Richards is the only player in the top 10 with the same number of innings (80) as Bradman after 52 Tests, and the Windies great has the fewest not outs (four) not only of the top 10 but the top 20. But his 14 centuries are less than half what Bradman plundered. Sounds like a clerical error. It's not.

Most centuries after 52 Tests

Sir Donald Bradman (Aus) 29 (80 innings)

Sunil Gavaskar (Ind) 20 (89 inns)

Steve Smith (Aus) 18 (96 inns)

Matthew Hayden (Aus) 18 (89 inns)

Neil Harvey (Aus) 16 (89 inns)

Herbert Sutcliffe (Eng) 16 (81 inns)

David Warner (Aus) 16 (96 inns)

Greg Chappell (Aus) 15 (92 inns)

Virat Kohli (Ind) 15 (89 inns)

A century every second match, a hundred every 2.76 innings, three figures an expectation every time he walked to the crease. That's Bradman. Unbelievably it took four innings before he scored his first century – 112 against England at the MCG in his second Test. After missing out in his third match, Bradman went on a bit of a run, posting hundreds in his next four Tests including scores of 254 at Lord's and 334 in Leeds. He scored centuries in four consecutive matches twice, and if you exclude matches in which he didn't bat, those sequences extend to five and six. His last century, No.29, came in his 79th innings, an unbeaten 173 that guided Australia to a record target of 404 with seven wickets to spare on the final day at Headingley in 1948. His 29 hundreds in 52 matches won't be broken, but India's Gavaskar came closest by racking up 20 tons, while Aussies Smith and Hayden hit 18 each in that period. Hayden could well have found himself at No.2 on this list had he not been dismissed four times in the 90s. After 52 Tests, Bradman, Warner and Chappell never missed out once they arrived within 10 runs of a century.

Most runs after 52 Tests

Sir Donald Bradman (Aus) 6,996 (80 innings)

Sunil Gavaskar (Ind) 5,007 (95 inns)

Steve Smith (Aus) 4,924 (96 inns)

Sir Len Hutton (Eng) 4,842 (93 inns)

Matthew Hayden (Aus) 4,718 (89 inns)

Sir Jack Hobbs (Eng) 4,696 (85 inns)

David Warner (Aus) 4,507 (96 inns)

Joe Root (Eng) 4,500 (96 inns)

Kevin Pietersen (Eng) 4,494 (93 inns)

Sir Everton Weekes (WI) 4,445 (81 inns)

No surprises who tops the bill again here, with Bradman's 6,996 runs almost 2,000 clear of the next best – Indian legend Gavaskar, who is the only other player to have passed 5,000 runs after 52 Tests. For further comparison, Bradman passed 5,000 runs in his 36th Test – and his 57th innings. That was in 1938, a year before World War Two broke out and he didn't play a Test for more than eight years. The list is an interesting mix of the old and the new, with three players of the current era – Steve Smith, David Warner and Joe Root – rivalling the legends. Sir Everton Weekes, who comes in 10th on the list, remains the equal-fastest to 1000 Test runs in terms of innings played (with Herb Sutcliffe, who is 11th on this list) – ahead of Bradman by a single innings (12 plays 13). In Bradman (334), Sir Len Hutton (364) and Matthew Hayden (380), the list also contains three players to have held the world record for the highest individual Test score.

Most wins after 52 Tests

Adam Gilchrist (Aus) 40

Brett Lee (Aus) 39

Matthew Hayden (Aus) 36

Mike Hussey (Aus) 35

Jason Gillespie (Aus) 34

Damien Martyn (Aus) 34

Ricky Ponting (Aus) 33

Ravi Ashwin (Ind) 31

Stuart MacGill (Aus) 31

Justin Langer (Aus) 31

Michael Clarke (Aus) 31

Keith Miller (Aus) 31

Finally – a list Bradman does not appear on (for the record, he won 30 of his 52 Tests, so only just misses). It is a reflection of their golden era that a large chunk of this list is Australian teammates, who debuted between November 1992 (Damien Martyn) and November 2005 (Mike Hussey). Adam Gilchrist tops the pile, having had a remarkable beginning to his career with 15 straight victories (a streak that was only overturned by India's famous comeback win in Kolkata, 2001), while the next man on the list, Brett Lee, debuted a month after the wicketkeeper-batsman and enjoyed a similar entry in Baggy Green, winning 10 straight before a dead-rubber loss to England in the 2001 Ashes. The outliers on the list are India's Ravi Ashwin, whose 31 wins have come in an era of increasing dominance for India, particularly on home soil, and Keith Miller, who was part of the Invincibles in the early stage of his Test career before further successful eras under Lindsay Hassett and Ian Johnson.