Border had cruised to within 80 runs of passing Gavaskar after three Tests of five against the West Indies. But scores of 19, 1, 0 and 0 (his first pair of ducks in Tests) in the final two games in Adelaide and Perth left Border to go past Gavaskar away from home against New Zealand in Christchurch.

After his achievement of the record at Lancaster Park, Border’s autobiography was entitled Beyond 10,000.

Similarly, Smith will most likely go past 10,000 runs as Australia’s stand-in captain in Sri Lanka, at the lower profile venue of Galle.

“It’s a testimony to the hard work he’s put in,” Border told this masthead before the SCG Test.

“He’s not the bloke where you say to your son, ‘Here’s a technique you’ve got to follow’, but it’s worked for him, and that’s a good sign that you know your game. He’s done it so well, because it’s not a technique for everyone. He’s in the top echelon. There’s prettier players, but not many who’ve got that record.

“Averaging 57 or so is in the top echelon ever, if you take one certain bloke [Don Bradman] out of it, and he’s right up there with the very, very best. As far as Australia’s concerned, we’ve had Greg Chappell, Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, those sorts of players.

“But now Steve ranks equally with that group, no problems whatsoever. I’m a huge fan of [Sachin] Tendulkar and [Brian] Lara, they were phenomenally good cricketers, but Steve is definitely up with that lot, for sure.”

Major cricket milestones can sometimes be achieved with the serendipitous presence of the previous record-holder. In 1994, Lara’s 375, then the highest score made in Tests, was witnessed in Antigua by Sir Garfield Sobers, who had made the previous mark of 365.

But others can take longer than hoped. Shane Warne went wicketless at the SCG for the only time in his career against India in 2000 when he was six wickets short of passing Dennis Lillee’s then-Australian record of 355 victims. Like Border, he ultimately got there in New Zealand.