Batting average (cricket) are usually subject to a minimum qualification of 20 innings played or completed, in order to exclude batsmen who have not played enough games for their skill to be reliably assessed. Under this qualification, the highest Test batting average belongs to Australia's Sir Donald Bradman, with 99.94. Given that a career batting average over 50 is exceptional, and that only five other players have averages over 60, this is an outstanding statistic. The fact that Bradman's average is so far above that of "any" other cricketer has led several statisticians to argue that, statistically at least, he was the greatest
Herbert Sutcliffe's cricket career (1933–39) "Wisden's" view was that England wished to try out younger players but it pointed out that Sutcliffe "remains a prolific runscorer". Sutcliffe's record in Test cricket is outstanding. As shown by the adjacent graph, he is the only English batsman who has averaged more than 60 runs per innings in a completed career and his statistical record compares favourably with anyone except Don Bradman. Uniquely, Sutcliffe's batting average never dropped below 60 throughout his entire Test career and Javed Miandad is the only other player whose average never dropped below 50 in a career of at least 20 innings. A