Steve Smith hands down is the best batsman in the world

[Gollum]

@mancalledsting I am ok with your reasoning as long as you apply this criteria to all players and not just Smith and Cook.  It is your way of looking at things and I respect that.

[mancalledsting]

23 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Even peak Sachin had stinkers in the 90s, eg NZ home series 1995 and a few tests in Zimbabwe. Now by your logic 90s Sachin wasn't really that good, right?

False equivalence...

 

I have way more evidence to refute your point about sachin (25 year long career) than you do mine about Steve smith which is based on one series against over confident, lethargic, injury ridden, end of longest ever home season India 

[jeetu]

He has a very strong case of this generations version of Sangakkara , he is averaging nearly 60 in 55 tests.

[Shunya]

2 hours ago, Jimmy Cliff said:

He's almost certain to have the 2nd highest peak rating ever in the official rankings after this game.

Can Smith break Bradman's Alltime rating record? That will be something. Nobody has been able to come near in last 70 years. Wow !

[Jimmy Cliff]

9 minutes ago, Shunya said:

Can Smith break Bradman's Alltime rating record? That will be something. Nobody has been able to come near in last 70 years. Wow !

Another 100 in this game or a daddy hundred in the next game could be enough to go past Bradman. 

[AmreekanDesi]

Really have to appreciate OP for revealing this mind blowing piece of info which no one else knew about! :)

 

but in in all seriousness. You really have to be at the height of delusion to say Smith isn't streets ahead of any other batsman at this point.

 

Even in the SL away your white wash Smith was one of the few Aussie players to emerge with credit.

 

he absolutely spanked the #1 and #2 ranked bowlers in the word when he toured us. Heck Ashwin and Jadeja have made every other batting unit look like utter clowns for past 24 months prior to that

 

The Pune pitch was a rank turner. Heck it had more cracks on the first day than a normal day 5 pitch at Wankhede or Eden Garden 

 

[AmreekanDesi]

It's his consistency which is utter mind blowing which really puts him above Kohli (asides from the fact that he scores freakin everywhere)

 

Kohli has the England home series and NZ home series where he was absolutely beastly and dominated majority of series. And also the 2014 Aus tour (where he was still left in the shade by Smith though)

 

But Smith has those types of series every 2 out of 3 series

 

his stats are crazy as it is even though they are somewhat understated by the fact that for first 10 odd matches he played as a bowler made to bat at #7

[nevada]

Smith scores time and again when his team is struggling. For that alone he deserves respect. 

[AmreekanDesi]

Just now, nevada said:

Smith scores time and again when his team is struggling. For that alone he deserves respect. 

Yep

 

this series or the India tour and many others it wasn't like he was just at the top of a long litany of batsmen putting big runs.

 

often he is just one of the handful or only one scoring big 

 

Australia side is actually very poor. He is singlehandedly making their batting quality 

[mancalledsting]

Guys lets keep some sense of perspective here...pat Cummins posted 42 in the same innings and looked very comfortable. 

[Cricketics]

10 minutes ago, mancalledsting said:

Guys lets keep some sense of perspective here...pat Cummins posted 42 in the same innings and looked very comfortable. 

Thing is that when you are 3 down early and trailing by about 300 runs, your team is in trouble especially when you have pretty ordinary batsmen to follow. Smith doesn’t have the luxury of Hussey and Gilchrist. So he keeps scoring under pressure and keeps doing it over and over again.

 

I don’t care if the track is flat or whatever, if you are  3 down early, your team is in trouble and Smith keeps scoring and is hard to get out along with pushes others to bat around him and stay long so that he can take Australia’s score to a decent one.

 

He is brilliant at it so far and is certainly the best in the world. Now how long he keeps doing this for is another thing but there is no doubt that so far he has done well. 

[mancalledsting]

42 minutes ago, Cricketics said:

Thing is that when you are 3 down early and trailing by about 300 runs, your team is in trouble especially when you have pretty ordinary batsmen to follow. Smith doesn’t have the luxury of Hussey and Gilchrist. So he keeps scoring under pressure and keeps doing it over and over again.

 

I don’t care if the track is flat or whatever, if you are  3 down early, your team is in trouble and Smith keeps scoring and is hard to get out along with pushes others to bat around him and stay long so that he can take Australia’s score to a decent one.

 

He is brilliant at it so far and is certainly the best in the world. Now how long he keeps doing this for is another thing but there is no doubt that so far he has done well. 

Ok so surely Kohli's innings in Mumbai vs England last year makes him the best in the world? 

[Cricketics]

4 minutes ago, mancalledsting said:

Ok so surely Kohli's innings in Mumbai vs England last year makes him the best in the world? 

Kohli is good but he needs to catch up with the other guys like Root and Smith. And he certainly has been racking runs like he did get 3 double hundreds recently . So Kohli is up there but Smith’s average doesn’t lie that he has score more times than not and stayed on the wicket many times and hence his average is close to 60.

 

Kohli will be the greatest by the time it all ends but he is not the best right now. Right now its Smith, no one close to him at this time.

 

 

[ravishingravi]

2 hours ago, Cricketics said:

Kohli is good but he needs to catch up with the other guys like Root and Smith. And he certainly has been racking runs like he did get 3 double hundreds recently . So Kohli is up there but Smith’s average doesn’t lie that he has score more times than not and stayed on the wicket many times and hence his average is close to 60.

 

Kohli will be the greatest by the time it all ends but he is not the best right now. Right now its Smith, no one close to him at this time.

 

 

 

I think sometimes with our fascination with Stars we fail to see the flaws. It is not even about average. Kohli was worked out in English conditions. He does look suspect when the ball is swinging and in that corridor. 

 

Ian Chappell said it right today. At this level every batsman has a weakness. It is all about how you get around it. Haven’t seen a Kohli come around. Smith is by far the best test batsman in the world. 

[Pollack]

7 minutes ago, ravishingravi said:

 

I think sometimes with our fascination with Stars we fail to see the flaws. It is not even about average. Kohli was worked out in English conditions. He does look suspect when the ball is swinging and in that corridor. 

 

Ian Chappell said it right today. At this level every batsman has a weakness. It is all about how you get around it. Haven’t seen a Kohli come around. Smith is by far the best test batsman in the world. 

Exactly Kohli is not the best batsman in the world right now. Kohli has serious issues when ball moves around and while every batsman struggle against movement great batsman eventually find a way to be atleast better than others in same conditions. Whenever one mentions this people just throw around random matches where he played great and then debate about conditions being seam/swing friendly even if they were actually not.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Pollack

[zep1706]

It's hard to imagine now that Steve Smith started his career mainly as a leg spinner. This guy has always baffled me, he's an enigma. I still don't know what it is that makes him so good. I always thought it was only a matter of time before he gets found out. Well I was wrong. He has a weird technique but it works for him obviously, don't think anyone else can copy him. He just has incredible hand eye coordination and of course excellent temperament. 

[AmreekanDesi]

7 hours ago, mancalledsting said:

Guys lets keep some sense of perspective here...pat Cummins posted 42 in the same innings and looked very comfortable. 

Clearly you don't understand much cricket if you're going to use such childish arguments

 

cricket is not a linear game lol

[King Tendulkar]

Omg just checked . Steve smith averages 29 in Bangladesh . This is utterly pathetic . Can’t play spin in Bangladesh and face their hostile childish team 

 

massive chink . Not atg then . O well another one bites the dust

 

ps can some one check smiths Wednesday batting average ? Think it’s under 30! 

[King Tendulkar]

Omg

 

smith averages 44 and under in 

 

Bangladesh- can’t handle their hostile sledging 

england -can’t play swing 

Sri Lanka - really !!! Even Rohit is beast there 

uae- well they are bowling powerhouse so fair enough ( Sri Lankan’s May disagree )

 

but averages 72 at home . Hmmmn

 

Edited November 26, 2017 by King Tendulkar

[mancalledsting]

It's obvious that I've punched above the intellectual capacity of some posters here.

 

Let me come down to a level where you'll be comfortable. I concede Steve Smith is clearly the best, on the basis of him batting well against a bowling attack that lost 5-0 in the same conditions.

 

top 3 batsmen ever !!

 

1. Steve smith

2. Sangakarra

3, jayawardene

 

Yay!