5 Top Batsmen who never scored an away Test hundred
A Test century is one of the most special feelings for a Test batsman, even more special is scoring a Test century in alien conditions. A century in alien conditions helps a player establish himself as an all conditions cricketer.
Most of the teams who are good at home, falter in overseas conditions due to the lack of overseas specialist batsmen. A foreign Test hundred is extremely valuable for not only the player, but also for his nation since it helps the team dominate in the game.
Sachin Tendulkar leads the tally of away Test centuries with a towering number of 29 hundreds in foreign conditions. However, there have been a few top batsmen in Test cricket who failed to reach the three-figure mark despite coming very close.
Here are five top batsmen who batted well in home conditions but could not muster a century while batting on away pitches.
#1. Farokh Engineer - India (20 Away Tests)
Synonym of ‘Flamboyance’, Parsi gentleman Farokh Engineer is rightly one of the finest wicketkeepers to have played for India. The fact that Engineer was chosen as the first-choice wicketkeeper for the Rest of the World XI in 1970 proves his credentials.
With the bat, Farokh Engineer was an aggressive and a wonderfully stylish batsman. He once came excruciatingly close to the phenomenal feat of scoring a Test century on day one before lunch when he scored 94 in a session against West Indies at Chepauk in 1966-67.
Despite averaging higher outside India (Batting average at home 29.82, away 32.67), Engineer failed to reach the century mark overseas. He was extremely close in 1967 at Adelaide against Australia where he was caught behind for 89 runs which included 14 boundaries.