5 great batsmen who never averaged 50 in Tests

#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.