structural:scholar_edition, quality:corruption
1958–1964: 365 not out

At this stage of his career, Sobers had frustrated his admirers by failing to convert good starts into high scores. He had reached double figures in 18 of his 22 Test innings, although his highest score was still only 66. But, in the three years following the 1957 tour, he fulfilled his promise. In his next 24 Tests, he scored 2,250 runs at the exceptionally high average of 93.75. In 1958, he scored his maiden Test century against Pakistan in Kingston and expanded it to an unbeaten 365, breaking the world record Test score of 364 set by England's Len Hutton in 1938. Sobers batted for 614 minutes and scored 38 fours but, unusually in such a large total, no sixes. At 21 years and 216 days, he is the youngest player to break the individual scoring record in Tests, and remains the youngest triple-centurion. Sir Garfield Sobers set the world records for the highest maiden test ton (365*) as well as becoming the first batsman in test history to convert his maiden test ton into a triple ton. He made 824 runs with three centuries in the five Tests against Pakistan, and followed this with 557 runs and three more centuries on the West Indies tour of India in 1958–59. Sobers underwent trauma following the death of Collie Smith in September 1959, but he continued to play cricket successfully. In the home Test series against England in 1959–60, he scored three centuries in five matches, totalling 709 runs.

Largely inspired by new West Indies captain Sir Frank Worrell, who was a close personal friend, Sobers had an outstanding 1960–61 series in Australia. He scored a celebrated 132 on the first day of the First Test at Brisbane Cricket Ground, the match which resulted in the first Tied Test. Wisden confirmed that "some observers considered it the best hundred they had ever seen". Sobers scored 430 runs in the series, which Australia won 2–1, with two centuries; his fielding was outstanding and he took 12 catches. He felt he had "had a good series, starting badly but then coming on" and a very positive outcome for him was to receive an invitation from Don Bradman to play for South Australia in 1961–62.

Sobers took 15 wickets in the 1960–61 series, including a best analysis of 5/120, at an average of 39.20, and his bowling allowed Worrell to play an extra batsman in the final three Tests, thus using Sobers for the first time as a designated all-rounder, a role in which he became the dominant player in world cricket over the next decade, being awarded the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World title (retrospectively) eight times in 13 years. Sobers was never a prolific wicket-taker in Test cricket, and his average of three wickets per game in this series typified his whole career. Overall, he took 235 wickets in his 93 Tests at an average of 34.03 and was more effective when operating as a pace bowler. His best performance was 6/73 and, although he achieved five wickets in an innings six times, he never took ten in a match.

His success continued in the next two series at home to India in 1961–62 and away to England in 1963. He was elected Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1964, and then succeeded Worrell, who had retired, as West Indies captain for the 1964–65 home series against Australia.