5 great batsmen who never averaged 50 in Tests

Those who saw Alvin Kallicharran bat, recall him as being one of the best batsmen of the 1970s. In the most inspiring of all his performances, he bashed Dennis Lillee in a preliminary match of the 1975 World Cup. Lillee, in his prime, tested Kallicharran with all sorts of deliveries but Kallicharran was in a different zone altogether. Lillee was smashed for 35 runs in the 10 balls he bowled at Kallicharran during that brief run of play.

Kallicharran ended his career with 4399 runs in 66 Tests, at an average of 44.43. A respectable record no matter what lens it is looked at with, but Kallicharran is not given the appreciation that his talent and contribution to the game merits. To some extent, that is because he didn’t end up with a career average of 50; despite having averaged more than 50 in 38 of the 66 Tests that he played.

Attaining (and sustaining) a batting average of 50 is considered to be an important trait of a great batsman, but there are some great batsmen along with Kallicharran who did not achieve that milestone and may have missed out on their true stature in the game.

(Batsmen with a minimum of 5000 runs and an average greater than 45)

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#1 Rohan Kanhai

The inventor of the Fall-Back Hook shot, Kanhai was offered fine praise by Sunil Gavaskar who wrote the following lines about him in his book Idols – ‘ To say that Rohan Kanhai is the best batsman I've ever seen is to put it mildly’.

Rohan Kanhai was widely considered to be amongst the best batsmen of the 1960s. Those who played with him considered his prowess to be at par with that of his great contemporary, Sir Garry Sobers.

	Matches	Innings	N.O.	Runs	Average	100s	50s
Overall Career	79	137	6	6227	47.53	15	28
Highest Average	62	110	4	5270	49.71	13	23

Kanhai started off his career with a string of disappointing scores to his name. It was not until his 13^th Test match that he scored his first century, and he made it count by converting it into a double (256) vs India at Kolkata. From then on, his career started scaling new heights. He scored consistently against all opposition and was equally effective on home and away surfaces (Home Avg: 48.63, Away Avg: 46.51).

Kanhai posessed all the characteristics of a great batsman, except for an average of 50, which eluded him throughout his career. The closest Kanhai got to attaining an average of 50 was in his 62^nd Test, at the conclusion of which he averaged 49.71.

#2 VVS Laxman

Laxman scored 8000+ runs in his career

Along with the silken touch he had in his wrists, VVS Laxman also posessed the determination which saw him change India’s Test fortunes in 2001 when he played one of the all time great innings in Test history – 281 vs Australia at Eden Gardens.

Laxman’s topsy turvy career took off from then on and he became a permanent fixture in the side till his retirement, guiding India’s fortunes with the certainty of a professional and the grace of an artist.

	Matches	Innings	N.O.	Runs	Average	100	50
Overall Career	134	225	34	8781	45.97	17	56
Highest Average	116	191	30	7695	47.79	16	48

But Laxman is still not counted in the same breath as other top batsmen of his era, experts point out to him not converting fifties into big hundreds as one reason. But given that the likes of Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid and Tendulkar batted before him, Laxman had relatively fewer opportunities to settle in and get big scores.

Laxman ended his career with an average of almost 46, a very respectable number for someone who batted at no.5 and 6 for a majority of his career. He achieved his career-best average at the end of his 116^th Test at 47.79.

For a batsman who in full flight, was a sight for sore eyes, may have missed out on his true stature.

#3 Gary Kirsten

Kirsten was a mainstay in the South African top order

Gary Kirsten played perhaps the most taxing innings of them all when South Africa were facing a deficit of 210 in the 3rd innings of the Durban Test match against England in 1999/2000 series.

South Africa needed someone to play a rearguard role and no one was better disposed to do it than Gary Kirsten. In a display of unflappable concentration and stamina, he batted for 878 minutes to score 275. This remains the second longest individual innings in Test history.

	Matches	Innings	N.O.	Runs	Average	100	50
Overall Career	101	176	15	7289	45.27	21	34
Highest Average	99	172	15	7210	45.92	21	33

From a shaky start to his cricketing career, Kirsten went on to represent South Africa in more than 100 Test matches. The former opening batsman never had the elegance that left handers are associated with, but his determination carried him to great heights in the game.

The fact that he achieved his highest career average (45.92 in his 99^th Test) near the end of his career shows that he was still getting better when he decided to call it an end.

#4 Justin Langer

Langer scored in excess of 7000 runs

Steve Waugh hailed Justin Langer as the best batsman in the world after he scored a blazing 4th innings century against New Zealand at Hamilton in 2000. Inspite of such flashes of brilliance, he was in the shadows of his more talented team-mates.

Langer had a tough initiation into international cricket – he got hit on the head by an Ian Bishop delivery in his first Test at Adelaide in 1993, but he fought back to score a valiant half century in the second innings. Langer always seemed to be one bad series away from losing his place in the team, but it is a testament to his consistency that he went on to serve Australian cricket for 13 years.

	Matches	Innings	N.O.	Runs	Average	100	50
Career Average	105	182	12	7696	45.27	23	30
Highest Average	83	141	6	6299	46.65	21	23

Langer acheived his highest career average of 46.65 at the end of his 83rd Test (vs Pakistan, Perth, Dec 2004). He scored 191 in that match, and ended the year 2004 with 1481 runs, which was the 5^th highest on the all time list at that time. His average never touched 50, but this shouldn’t diminish his stature one bit.

#5 Martin Crowe

Crowe was an integral player in the New Zealand team of the 80s and 90s

Martin Crowe was the cornerstone of New Zealand’s batting throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. At the time of his retirement, he had scored the most runs and centuries in both Tests and ODIs and had registered the highest individual score by a New Zealander (299 vs Sri Lanka, Wellington, 1991).

At the time when Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were perplexing batsmen the world over with their reverse swinging deliveries, Martin Crowe was perhaps the only batsmen who could play the reverse swing effectively.

	Matches	Innings	N.O.	Runs	Average	100	50
Overall Career	77	131	11	5444	45.36	17	18
Highest Average	61	102	10	4454	48.41	14	15

Crowe scored big hundreds against some of the best attacks of his times – West Indies, Australia and Pakistan. That is perhaps one of the reasons why Wasim Akram still concedes that Crowe was the best batsman he bowled to. The New Zealander never averaged 50, the closest he got to it was in his 61^st test when he averaged 48.41.

But nevertheless, he became the standard by which New Zealand batsmen were and still are measured. Some months prior to being diagnosed with cancer, Crowe contemplated a return to competitive cricket to get to 20,000 first class runs.

His wish went unfulfilled, but his spirit lives on.