Top 5 batsmen and their highest batting average in Test cricket

3. Rahul Dravid – 58.75

In the early 2000s, Rahul Dravid became a key figure in the Indian Test line-up while Sachin Tendulkar was struggling with injuries here and there. Dravid’s golden run in Test cricket came across the West Indies tours in 2002 and 2006. Rahul featured in as many as 49 Tests in this period where he amassed 4720 runs at an average of 68.4. He struck 14 tons and 22 half-centuries in 81 innings in this span.

As a result, Dravid’s career average touched 58.75 at the end of the 2006 Jamaica Test where he struck twin fifties to seal a series win. However, Mr Dependable averaged 95 after his Test debut at Lord’s where he scored 95. He scored his 2nd Test fifty in 3rd match after which his average stood at 62.33. It took another 102 matches for Dravid to come close to that figure. However, in the next 26 Test matches, Dravid scored only 1324 runs even though India played a decent number of Tests at home in that period.

The former Indian captain averaged a lowly 29.42 in that span and scored only two hundreds in 49 innings. This poor run brought his Test career average down to 52.12 which is less than what he averaged at the end of his career. In 2011, Dravid scored five centuries including four across the tours to West Indies and England which held his Test batting average little over 53. The 2011/12 series in Australia turned out to be Dravid’s last Test series where he averaged only 24.25.