5 batsmen who scored most Test runs before their first double century

Jacques Kallis

Jacques Kallis en-route his double hundred

Matches: 142, Innings: 241, Runs: 11449, Average: 55.84, 100s: 37, Highest: 189*

The top spot is occupied by perhaps the most complete cricketer of the 21st century. One can argue that given the high flying talent that he was surrounded by, Kallis acted as the pivot around whom they batted. It took him an agonising 14 years and 142 Test matches for him to register his first Test double century and it came in a match of epic proportions.

An under-prepared India were up against the mighty Proteas at Centurion, and true to their reputation, were all out for 136. Smelling blood courtesy an easing pitch and India's moderate bowling, South Africa plundered a mammoth 620/4, with the other two centurions (Amla, De Villiers) batting around Kallis who stuck to the crease for 6 and a half hours. India replied strongly with Tendulkar notching his 50th Test hundred but it was no day for glory as they went down by an innings and 25 runs.

Kallis, meanwhile, scored another double century in the tour of England shortly afterwards, just to show his first double hundred wasn't a fluke.