5 great batsmen who never averaged 50 in Tests

#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.