4 Test greats with the worst 50 to 100 conversion rate

The hallmark of any great batsman is converting fifties into hundreds and hundreds into double-hundreds. They say that after 5 years, no one is going to remember your 50s and 60s. But, it is only the hundreds that will remain in the memories of cricket fans.

However, there have been many great players who were terrible at converting fifties into hundreds. These legends made a mark in their careers but would feel they missed out on that 'All-time great' tag because of not scoring as many centuries as they should have. Here are 4 greats of the game who had the worst conversion rate in test cricket.

The conversion rate is the ratio of hundreds scored to a total number of fifties. In the modern era, the conversion rate has gained enormous importance. Once a player gets his eye in, he is expected to carry on his good form and score really big irrespective of the format. Players scoring fifties consistently but not converting them into hundreds are no longer labelled as greats.

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#4 VVS Laxman (23.28%)

The man with 'golden wrists' was a stalwart in the Indian middle-order for more than 10 years. Whenever India needed someone to stand up and rescue the side after a batting collapse, Laxman has always been there. His knocks of 281 at Kolkata and 148 at Adelaide, both against Australia are some prime examples of his rescue acts.

However, not always Laxman has been able to convert his fifties into daddy hundreds like some other Indian batsmen of his era. Out of 73 times when he went past the score of 50, Laxman converted only 17 of those into triple-figures which comes down to only 23.27%.

In his career, Laxman has played 134 tests scoring 8781 runs at an average of close to 46. Surprisingly, India's test great does not have a test hundred on English and South African soil. However, with Laxman, it was more the value than the number of runs that mattered.

#3 Misbah-ul-Haq (20.4%)

The Pakistani captain has had his trouble scoring hundreds, both in test cricket and ODI cricket. He does not have a century against his name in one-day cricket and in tests, he has an unimpressive conversion rate of 20.4%.

In his career, Misbah has converted only 10 of his 49 fifty-plus scores into the three-figure mark. Misbah's batting position in the Pakistani middle-order was at No.5. He has played 75 tests for Pakistan scoring 5222 runs at an average of 46. It took a long time for Misbah's career to take off and finally in 2007, he became a regular in Pakistan's test team.

One possible reason for his low conversion rate could be batting with the tail. Quite often, Misbah had to hang around with the tail trying to rebuild the innings when the fragile Pakistan batting line-up has collapsed.

Looking back, Misbah would feel he should have scored lot more than 10 test hundreds.

#2 Stephen Fleming (16.36%)

The former New Zealand captain was a shrewd tactician highly admired for his great cricketing brain. Fleming saw the New Zealand team through the thick and thin in the late nineties and early noughties. Fleming's impact with the bat was good but he was not a great converter of fifties into hundreds.

In 111 test matches, Fleming has scored 7172 runs at an average of 40. He converted only 9 out of his 55 fifty-plus scores into hundreds. His conversion rate of 16.36% does not do justice to a player of his calibre.

It was quite surprising to see that Fleming did not score many hundreds despite batting at the top of the order for a number of years. Many times, he was not the lone star in the New Zealand batting line-up which was not the strongest during his heydays.

#1 Arjuna Ranatunga (8.7%)

Arjuna Ranatunga brought a revolution into the Sri Lankan cricket after the 1996 World Cup victory. Ranatunga's heroics in the 1996 World Cup aspired many Sri Lankans to take up cricket. However, the former Sri Lankan captain was one of the worst when it came to converting fifties into hundreds.

In his career, Ranatunga has scored 46 fifties and has gone past the three-figure mark only 4 times. Also, all of Ranatunga's 4 centuries came on the home soil which clearly suggests he was not the best overseas batsman around.

Ranatunga has played 93 tests for Sri Lanka scoring 5105 runs at an average of 35. His conversion rate of 8.7% is the worst for any test batsman who has played above 80 test matches and scored 5000 or more runs.