5 active batsmen with the highest batting average in Tests
99.94 was the career batting average of Si Don Bradman when he retired. It has been almost 70 years since he retired, but, nobody has come even close to that kind of career batting average. A batting average of 50 is considered to be very good in the modern day Test cricket. Some of the great batsmen of the current era like Sachin Tendulkar, Kumara Sangakkara, AB Devilliers, and Rahul Dravid retired with a batting average in the 50s.
Career batting average is a very good statistic to judge the consistency of a batsman. Let us take a look at the five active batsmen (minimum 20 innings) with the highest batting average in Test cricket at the moment and see who are the most consistent batsmen of the current era:
#5 Cheteshwar Pujara
Pujara has seen lots of ups and downs as a Test batsman during his career. He started off with a bang, but stuttered a bit during the overseas assignments later on in his career and got dropped from the team for a short while.
Lately, he has been in very good form, scoring runs all over the world. Recently, Pujara scored a match-winning century during the Adelaide Test in Australia.
So far Pujara has scored 5127 runs at an average of 49.77 from 66 Test matches, which included 16 centuries and 20 fifties.
#4 Joe Root
Joe Root was touted as the next big thing in English Test cricket when he started off his career, but lately, he has struggled a bit. One of the major problems Root is facing as a batsman is his conversion rate, he is getting starts but not carrying on.
This fact is indicated by his record- he has scored 41 fifties, but the number of centuries is just 15. Root can play both spin and pace with equal ease. So far, he has scored 6508 runs from 77 Test matches at an average of 50.44, which included 15 centuries and 41 fifties.