5 great batsmen who never averaged 50 in Tests

#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.