Steven Smith is officially the BEST BATSMAN in the World!

[Sooda]

 

18 hours ago, Gollum said:

 ABDV is ulta, great WC performer but underachiever in tests.

i think his LO exploits mask what a good test player hes been.

 

Old but good breakdown of his test career:

 

https://www.sportskeeda.com/cricket/ab-de-villiers-in-tests-statistical-analysis

[Sooda]

By far and away the best current batsman.

 

In terms of where he stands historically Smith Chappell Ponting Border and Waugh are the best of the modern Aus greats, or batsmen since Bradman

 

Its a question of where Smith ranks amongst those. Waugh and Border have the edge in terms of longevity (Ponting too for that matter) and quality of opposition theyve faced. Still relatively early for Smith, he could well end up a shoo in for an all time Aus XI

[putrevus]

Smith is already on the way of becoming best test batsman since Bradman and Sobers in the history of cricket.You do not have to play 200 tests just for sake of creating some meaning less record. Kohli is long way behind this guy.

 

He has scored runs everywhere against all attacks and is  way ahead of Sachin after same number of tests .How he does with his technique is still a mystery.

 

If he has couple of years like this he will end up a ATG.

Edited March 26, 2017 by putrevus

[BCCI]

2 minutes ago, putrevus said:

Smith is already on the way of becoming best test batsman since Bradman and Sobers in the history of cricket.You do not have to play 200 tests just for sake of creating some meaning less record. Kohli is long way behind this guy.

 

He has scored runs everywhere against all attacks and is  way ahead of Sachin after same number of tests .How he does with his technique is still a mystery.

 

If he has couple of years like this he will end up a ATG.

Disagree,its Bradman,S Waugh and then Smith even for Aus.

[putrevus]

1 minute ago, BCCI said:

Disagree,its Bradman,S Waugh and then Smith even for Aus.

Steve Waugh was not even half the batsman this guy is, Waugh was a very limited player who had tremendous courage and guts.

 

List of Aussie batsmen who were better than Steve Waugh is a long one.

[NameGoesHere]

5 minutes ago, putrevus said:

................

 

List of Aussie batsmen who were better than Steve Waugh is a long one.

Although the list of Aussie batters who were more successful than Steve Waugh is not as long.

[BCCI]

Just now, putrevus said:

Steve Waugh was not even half the batsman this guy is, Waugh was a very limited player who had tremendous courage and guts.

 

List of Aussie batsmen who were better than Steve Waugh is a long one.

S.Waugh has so many memorable performances around the world.As far as being limited is concerned Smith is not far behind,infact both these 2 players have the similarity in being ugly but effective.

[NameGoesHere]

However, I have to admit that -IMO (haven't looked at the numbers, this is a gut feel)- Smith is going better than Waugh did at this time.  

 

I followed Waugh very closely- he was something of my hero from the day he played in India in the late eighties, and Smith has the same grit and will to win, but seems more talented.

[BCCI]

6 minutes ago, NameGoesHere said:

However, I have to admit that -IMO (haven't looked at the numbers, this is a gut feel)- Smith is going better than Waugh did at this time.  

 

I followed Waugh very closely- he was something of my hero from the day he played in India in the late eighties, and Smith has the same grit and will to win, but seems more talented.

I agree He may be more talented or having slighltly better range of strokes but still feel Smith has to do a lot more to come at par with Waugh.

Edited March 26, 2017 by BCCI

[putrevus]

3 minutes ago, BCCI said:

S.Waugh has so many memorable performances around the world.As far as being limited is concerned Smith is not far behind,infact both these 2 players have the similarity in being ugly but effective.

I am not talking about style, Steve Waugh scored 32 hundreds in 160 plus tests this guy has scored 20 in 53. Smith is almost playing like modern day Bradman churning hundreds for fun and scoring runs everywhere.

Steve Waugh in comparison scored 4 hundreds after 53 tests. Steve Waugh was a fighter who made himself into a very good batsman in later part of his career.There is no comparison at all.

He is at 941 rating right now and it is bound to increase after his first innings 100 and he might end up only batsman after Bradman to reach 950 rating.

[BCCI]

1 minute ago, putrevus said:

I am not talking about style, Steve Waugh scored 32 hundreds in 160 plus tests this guy has scored 20 in 53. Smith is almost playing like modern day Bradman churning hundreds for fun and scoring runs everywhere.

Steve Waugh in comparison scored 4 hundreds after 53 tests. Steve Waugh was a fighter who made himself into a very good batsman in later part of his career.There is no comparison at all.

He is at 941 rating right now and it is bound to increase after his first innings 100 and he might end up only batsman after Bradman to reach 950 rating.

He is certainly bradmanesque against Ind but somewhere I feel he is not as invincible as our bowlers make him.Couldnt play the swinging ball last Ashes,made merry only at London.

[putrevus]

6 minutes ago, BCCI said:

He is certainly bradmanesque against Ind but somewhere I feel he is not as invincible as our bowlers make him.Couldnt play the swinging ball last Ashes,made merry only at London.

Our bowlers at home are not pushovers, not many have succeeded against them. Who has played swinging ball well, when ball is swinging every batsman is vulnerable that does not make Smith a worse batsmen than Waugh or Sachin. India's greatest lineup rolled over in 20 overs for 70 runs that too in India not forget their other collapses.

 

If there is no Smith in this series India even after its batting failures would have won the series already.

[Texan]

On 3/25/2017 at 3:34 AM, Fool said:

Oh good. Its finally official.

 

Despite it being common knowledge for about 2 years

Not quite. It was known that he was a very very good batsman, but he had not been tested in Indian conditions, just like Joe Root wasn't either. Both Root and Smith performed really well, and Smith was actually phenomenal on this tour, which suggests that he is comfortably the best batsman in the World.

[BCCI]

14 minutes ago, putrevus said:

Our bowlers at home are not pushovers, not many have succeeded against them. Who has played swinging ball well, when ball is swinging every batsman is vulnerable that does not make Smith a worse batsmen than Waugh or Sachin. India's greatest lineup rolled over in 20 overs for 70 runs that too in India not forget their other collapses.

 

If there is no Smith in this series India even after its batting failures would have won the series already.

Look there is no gainsaying the fact that he is nearing greatness but I ll not annoint him the greatest of all time already.Even in this series kudos to him for that 100 at Pune but that innings was riddled with luck,failed at Bangaluru,made merry once again at Ranchi patta and now again.

 

Honestly only difference between him and Root in the last series is Root was not converting 50s into 100s and no he is not the reason why Ind has not won the series already ,its more to do with our own inept inconsistent batting.Mind you would have still won the last test but it was not Smith but Handscomb and Marsh who stonewalled India.

Edited March 26, 2017 by BCCI

[putrevus]

3 minutes ago, BCCI said:

Look there is no gainsaying the fact that he is nearing greatness but I ll not annoint him the greatest of all time already.Even in this series kudos to him for that 100 at Pune but that innings was riddled with luck,failed at Bangaluru,made merry once again at Ranchi patta and now again.

 

Honestly only difference between him and Root in the last series is Root was not converting 50s into 100s and no he is not the reason why Ind has not won the series already ,its more to do with our own inept inconsistent batting.Mind you would have still won the last test but it was not Smith but Handscomb and Marsh who stonewalled India.

If there is no Smith scoring 170 odd there is no chance for Marsh or Handscomb to do their thing, so it is more Steve Smith than those two who has defied India.

So you think  batsmen who scored hundred did not have their catches dropped, to quote that as some knock on him is just ridiculous.

Converting 50s to 100s is what makes this guy so ridiculously great.Don't insult this guy by mentioning he scores only on pattas, if you think this guy scores only pattas then we have nothing else to talk about.

 

[BCCI]

3 minutes ago, putrevus said:

If there is no Smith scoring 170 odd there is no chance for Marsh or Handscomb to do their thing, so it is more Steve Smith than those two who has defied India.

So you think  batsmen who scored hundred did not have their catches dropped, to quote that as some knock on him is just ridiculous.

Converting 50s to 100s is what makes this guy so ridiculously great.Don't insult this guy by mentioning he scores only on pattas, if you think this guy scores only pattas then we have nothing else to talk about.

 

Am not saying he scores only on pattas,you are putting words in my mouth.But I surely have this opinion that batsman on a normal day are not as lucky as Smith was in Pune.

 

He is certainly the best by miles atm but will reserve my judgement vis-a-vis greatest of all times.

[Trichromatic]

2 hours ago, putrevus said:

Smith is already on the way of becoming best test batsman since Bradman and Sobers in the history of cricket.You do not have to play 200 tests just for sake of creating some meaning less record. Kohli is long way behind this guy.

 

He has scored runs everywhere against all attacks and is  way ahead of Sachin after same number of tests .How he does with his technique is still a mystery.

 

If he has couple of years like this he will end up a ATG.

What do you think about the guy:

 

Matches: 54

Innings: 98

Runs: 5210

100s: 21

Avg: 57.25

HS: 221

 

stands in comparison of Smith:

Matches: 54

Innings: 99

Runs: 5234

100s: 20

Avg: 61.57

HS: 215

 

P.S. Former had that record in 70s and that too as an opener.

 

 

[Gollum]

I am sure Smith is going to score 1000 runs in one series( against us or england in australia) and break most test runs in a calender year record.

In all my years of watching cricket no one has played at this level.

The gap between him and number 2 batsman is the highest ever in the history of cricket.

 

Sent from my SM-G350E using Tapatalk

 

 

[sarcastic]

39 minutes ago, Trichromatic said:

What do you think about the guy:

 

Matches: 54

Innings: 98

Runs: 5210

100s: 21

Avg: 57.25

HS: 221

 

stands in comparison of Smith:

Matches: 54

Innings: 99

Runs: 5234

100s: 20

Avg: 61.57

HS: 215

 

P.S. Former had that record in 70s and that too as an opener.

 

 

Good post! Got me thinking who it could be before I read your post script. 

[Texan]

57 minutes ago, Trichromatic said:

What do you think about the guy:

 

Matches: 54

Innings: 98

Runs: 5210

100s: 21

Avg: 57.25

HS: 221

 

stands in comparison of Smith:

Matches: 54

Innings: 99

Runs: 5234

100s: 20

Avg: 61.57

HS: 215

 

P.S. Former had that record in 70s and that too as an opener.

 

 

Gavaskar was undoubtedly one of the top 3 openers of all time. We have to wait to make a determination on Smith where he finds a place in the all-time pantheon.