Steven Smith is officially the BEST BATSMAN in the World!

[I6MTW]

15 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Amla has not performed in World Cups but has been great in tests while ABDV is ulta, great WC performer but underachiever in tests. Kohli has done nothing of note in WCs and is a level below Smith in tests. KW is inferior to Kohli and Root is roughly the same level as Kohli, though he has a higher ceiling than Kohli considering his test record+age. 

 

But Amla and ABDV belong to the Sanga-KP-Younis-Clarkke generation. Smith, Kohli, Kane and Root are the fab 4 and hence comparison is valid between them.

I don't think abdv has underperformed in tests . He's one of the best players on the squad. He was ranked no 1 many times. Captained his side to no 1 in test rankings before. He's a guy who could score 100 of 80 balls and at the same time score 12 off 200 to save a test, which he did(cant remember which test).

 

Kohli has done nothing in wcs but tat was probably cuz it was the openers (Rohit and Dhawan who fired and got India off to a great start, off course in sf aside from Dhawan no one performed and in 2011 wc he was young and that squad consisted of gambhir sehwag srt yuvraj and all. He did make a very useful partnership with Gambhir in the finals.

 

Also root cant really be compared with Kohli becuz root cannot convert his starts 70% of the time. His conversion rate of 50's to 100's is very low. He needs to work on that. Also he has done very little in major odi tournaments.

 

I agree amla and abdv are nt of this generation but the thread title says smith is the "best in the world right now" and until amla and abdv retire they are still part of the set up of batsmen regardless of what generation they r from.

Edited March 25, 2017 by I6MTW

[sensible-indian]

53 minutes ago, gattaca said:

How were the pitches like ? Don't remember them being green at all in ashes.

 

58 minutes ago, Gollum said:

He was god like in the ashes in England. 

He failed on the swing tracks in Eng and made no impact. Bullied English bowlers on the 2 flatties.

 

Aus may have lost the series 2-3 but England actually thrashed them. They were 3-1 ahead before the final game.

 

But Smith scored against SA in Aus recently where pitches were more pace friendly and I think he even scored in SA a couple of years back.

 

At this moment, he really looks invincible.

Edited March 25, 2017 by sensible-indian

[mancalledsting]

No....like alaistair cook before him in 2012, he has capitalised on a tired and worn Indian side at the end of a long season. As a result, Ash is not the same Ash and we are dropping catches left right and centre. Like cook before him, if he comes back when India are on top form, he would be brought down to size. 

[gattaca]

8 minutes ago, sensible-indian said:

 

He failed on the swing tracks in Eng and made no impact. Bullied English bowlers on the 2 flatties.

 

Aus may have lost the series 2-3 but England actually thrashed them. They were 3-1 ahead before the final game.

 

But Smith scored against SA in Aus recently where pitches were more pace friendly and I think he even scored in SA a couple of years back.

 

At this moment, he really looks invincible.

At moment yes. He looks invincible but with his technique of walking I doubt he will good against good swing bowling on helpful pitch.

Edited March 25, 2017 by gattaca

[Gollum]

19 minutes ago, sensible-indian said:

 

He failed on the swing tracks in Eng and made no impact. Bullied English bowlers on the 2 flatties.

 

Aus may have lost the series 2-3 but England actually thrashed them. They were 3-1 ahead before the final game.

 

But Smith scored against SA in Aus recently where pitches were more pace friendly and I think he even scored in SA a couple of years back.

 

At this moment, he really looks invincible.

In England swing is the test of a batsman and swing doesn't have anything to do with the colour of the pitch. He conquered swing, but failed in the 3 seaming pitches. But he already proved in RSA (2014) and NZ (2016)  that he could play seam very very well. 

 

I agree Poms thrashed them but we can't underplay Smith's batting. He scored heavily in both the matches that Aussies won there. 20 years from now no one will care about the nature of the pitches where he scored or where he failed. Example:Today we know that Sachin has an average of 49 in England but most of his plunder came against the awful England side of the 90s on flat decks. When England became a stronger team and spiced up the pitches a little bit Sachin struggled there. Viv has a stellar record in England and Australia but those countries rolled out easy pitches for WI, lest they suffer the wrath of the fearsome pace bowling unit of WI. No one does a pitch by pitch analysis to analyze Viv's reputation in those 2 countries, check the espncricinfo scorecards and you will see how flat they were. Same with all past legends like Gavaskar, Greg Chappell, Boycott, Miandad, Lara, Ponting, Kallis, etc. They made their averages on flat decks and had ATG innings only in a handful of pitches which you can call greentop or dustbowl or proper swinging conditions. You can count their heroic innings on treacherous pitches with one hand, eg Gavaskar 96 Bengaluru against Pak, Gooch 152 in Headingley against WI, Laxman 98 odd in Durban 2010 etc.

 

Same with Smith. He has made merry on easier pitches whilst still playing an ATG knock in Pune on a dustbowl. Kohli/Root/KW haven't yet scored on a treacherous pitch. Rahane has in Lord's btw. 

 

The gulf between Smith and other top players in world cricket is so wide that it isn't even funny. In all my years of watching cricket I have never seen the number 1 batsman open such a wide gap over number 2, not Ponting (coz he sucked in India), not Kallis, not Sanga. Smith also has done well in all conditions. He is presently at 941 points, 20 shy of all time highest(Don Bradman). Check the names around him. At this rate he will even surpass Viv, Sachin and end up as undisputed number 2 behind Bradman. 

 

[Laaloo]

I'd say we should stop trying to get Smith out and focus on the other 10 mental midgets. They're all crap apart from renshaw. It's obvious we need some miracles to get Smith out. 

[Deleted_User_1]

Bradman > Steve Smith >>> SRT

[Adi_91]

4 minutes ago, dandaroy said:

Bradman > Steve Smith >>> SRT

How about SMG in this equation?

[Sajid_Rana]

Smith is on par with Babar Azam.

[kosingh]

1 minute ago, Sajid_Rana said:

Smith is on par with Babar Azam.

And a shade below Ahmed Shehzad

[BCCI]

50 minutes ago, Prince_ said:

Virat kohli is the definition of alpha? Someone pls kill me. 

Come at me bro I ll do the needful 

[Laaloo]

23 minutes ago, Sajid_Rana said:

Smith is on par with Babar Azam.

Smith's bowling average would be on par with Babar Azam.

[sensible-indian]

5 hours ago, Gollum said:

In England swing is the test of a batsman and swing doesn't have anything to do with the colour of the pitch. He conquered swing, but failed in the 3 seaming pitches. But he already proved in RSA (2014) and NZ (2016)  that he could play seam very very well. 

 

I agree Poms thrashed them but we can't underplay Smith's batting. He scored heavily in both the matches that Aussies won there. 20 years from now no one will care about the nature of the pitches where he scored or where he failed. Example:Today we know that Sachin has an average of 49 in England but most of his plunder came against the awful England side of the 90s on flat decks. When England became a stronger team and spiced up the pitches a little bit Sachin struggled there. Viv has a stellar record in England and Australia but those countries rolled out easy pitches for WI, lest they suffer the wrath of the fearsome pace bowling unit of WI. No one does a pitch by pitch analysis to analyze Viv's reputation in those 2 countries, check the espncricinfo scorecards and you will see how flat they were. Same with all past legends like Gavaskar, Greg Chappell, Boycott, Miandad, Lara, Ponting, Kallis, etc. They made their averages on flat decks and had ATG innings only in a handful of pitches which you can call greentop or dustbowl or proper swinging conditions. You can count their heroic innings on treacherous pitches with one hand, eg Gavaskar 96 Bengaluru against Pak, Gooch 152 in Headingley against WI, Laxman 98 odd in Durban 2010 etc.

 

Same with Smith. He has made merry on easier pitches whilst still playing an ATG knock in Pune on a dustbowl. Kohli/Root/KW haven't yet scored on a treacherous pitch. Rahane has in Lord's btw. 

 

The gulf between Smith and other top players in world cricket is so wide that it isn't even funny. In all my years of watching cricket I have never seen the number 1 batsman open such a wide gap over number 2, not Ponting (coz he sucked in India), not Kallis, not Sanga. Smith also has done well in all conditions. He is presently at 941 points, 20 shy of all time highest(Don Bradman). Check the names around him. At this rate he will even surpass Viv, Sachin and end up as undisputed number 2 behind Bradman. 

 

I agree Smith is incredible and I am not saying he was a failure in England through and through.

 

But when the pitches were tough (seam tracks), Smith looked out of sorts. Right now, if he tours there, he may very well perform in those tracks too.

 

Every ATG has mostly boosted their averages on flatties/relatively easier conditions (some had to face supreme bowlers though) while having some good performance on super tough tracks but generally they don't look out of sorts in one set of pitches and look unbeatable in other in the same series. So I think the criticism of Smith was valid at that point of time considering he was in super good nick.

 

Now, things may very well be different.

[Muloghonto]

DeVilliers and Amla are still #1 and 2 for me today. 

There are plenty of Steven Smith-esque batsmen/bowlers in history who had 3-4 great seasons and then went back to being mediocre. So to me, it takes more than just one world cup cycle to be the best batsman/bowler in the world. 

 

[express bowling]

9 hours ago, Gollum said:

Steve Smith=Chanderpaul+Virender Sehwag+Steve Waugh

Beat that.

 

Sehwag had a test SR of 82 after playing 104 tests  in the pre T20 era when playing very fast in tests was not even thought to be an option for top order batters. He was also a  really big score player with four  250 + scores. 

 

Smith has a SR of 56 in tests and has one 200+ score  with a highest of 215

 

He is no  Sehwag.

[kosingh]

13 hours ago, BCCI said:

Joe Root has a problem of not converting but there are not many faults with his technique,better than Kohli overall I think.Though Kohli is clutch.Williamson lagging behind in this race for now.

kane isn't that much behind kohli, I don't think. Very similar record.

[kosingh]

28 minutes ago, express bowling said:

 

Sehwag had a test SR of 82 after playing 104 tests  in the pre T20 era when playing very fast in tests was not even thought to be an option for top order batters. He was also a  really big score player with four  250 + scores. 

 

Smith has a SR of 56 in tests and has one 200+ score  with a highest of 215

 

He is no  Sehwag.

i guess you think lara is better than tendulkar

[Muloghonto]

32 minutes ago, express bowling said:

 

Sehwag had a test SR of 82 after playing 104 tests  in the pre T20 era when playing very fast in tests was not even thought to be an option for top order batters. He was also a  really big score player with four  250 + scores. 

 

Smith has a SR of 56 in tests and has one 200+ score  with a highest of 215

 

He is no  Sehwag.

Yeah.

TBH, i agree that Sehwag was a limited batsman overseas. (though not as much as people think- he pretty much had 2 cycles of overseas tours in his career and in the first one, he was young, adjusting to top order and did 'ok' overall and in the 2nd one, he was out of form overall- even in the home series and stuff, so it depresses his overseas average more than his capabilities IMO). 

 

But at the same time, when firing, Sehwag came quite literally closest to a 'match-wininng batsman' as Tests have ever seen.

Pretty much because he is an opener.

As far as test cricket goes, approaching overall 'ATG Test opener' numbers while being the only one proven in test cricket so far (Warner may still crash and burn. Its only been a few years- we will see) to open AND utterly dominate both in numbers & strike rate, does make one a strong candidate for a 'matchwinning batsman' in test cricket's sense.

Because Sehwag gave us sometimes options that no team ever has enjoyed : approaching 200 before 1st day lunch and only 1-2 wickets lost.

In test cricket, the whole idea of 'king of 4th innings/king of chasing = best batsman ever' is all fine and dandy. But those situations are rare. What isn't rare, is the opportunity to put your team ahead by piling a mountain of runs at a high speed: it gives your team more time to bowl the opposition out and have more flexibility.

I only wish we had a world class attack to complement Sehwag-Tendy-Dravid-Ganguly-laxman era. Coz that batting lineup was just unreal and only our inability to bowl oppositions out well in that period prevented us from being a world-beater team.

 

[Gollum]

7 hours ago, express bowling said:

 

Sehwag had a test SR of 82 after playing 104 tests  in the pre T20 era when playing very fast in tests was not even thought to be an option for top order batters. He was also a  really big score player with four  250 + scores. 

 

Smith has a SR of 56 in tests and has one 200+ score  with a highest of 215

 

He is no  Sehwag.

I meant he has Sehwag's hand eye co-ordination and timing.

[Deleted_User_1]

7 hours ago, express bowling said:

 

Sehwag had a test SR of 82 after playing 104 tests  in the pre T20 era when playing very fast in tests was not even thought to be an option for top order batters. He was also a  really big score player with four  250 + scores. 

 

Smith has a SR of 56 in tests and has one 200+ score  with a highest of 215

 

He is no  Sehwag.

Fat wag was a STB