Steve Smith hands down is the best batsman in the world

[Pollack]

2 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

Steve Smith cannot be compared to Kohli.  Two players can only be compared when they have comparable records.  Gilchrist was not better than Tendulkar just because he scored a 100 in a WC final.  Smith averages 42 in ODIs.  Kohli 59. 

But tendulkar scored truckloads of runs in World Cup too. So Gilchrist nowhere near Sachin.

[Haarkarjeetgaye]

He is an ugly batsman but so pleasing to watch. Determination and Temperament is beyond skies

[SK_IH]

17 minutes ago, bahubali said:

As if he is playing his first wc. It's already his 3rd wc and he is fully grown ass man so cut some slack till now in wc or important knockout he is complete dud.

I have given him this complete WC to showcase and fortify his greatness in this format. 

Edited June 6, 2019 by SK_IH

[Anoop K]

By that logic Rohit Sharma is better.  Two match winning hundreds in WC.  One of them came in knockout and Bangladesh of 2015 was good. 

[Stan AF]

5 minutes ago, Anoop K said:

By that logic Rohit Sharma is better.  Two match winning hundreds in WC.  One of them came in knockout and Bangladesh of 2015 was good. 

Absolutely Rohit is better than Kohli in wc so far.

[rkt.india]

15 minutes ago, Pollack said:

But tendulkar scored truckloads of runs in World Cup too. So Gilchrist nowhere near Sachin.

Same Smith's record is no where near Kohli, so, he cant be better than Kohli just because he scored more runs than Kohli in WC.

[rkt.india]

Just now, Stan AF said:

Absolutely Rohit is better than Kohli in wc so far.

not better overall

[Cricketics]

Smith has better record for now in WC, but overall Kohli is a better player. Its just by chance it has happened that Kohli hasn't scored in some of the main games. He does have a hundred in a game against Pakistan in 2015 World Cup btw.

 

Nothing to compare the overall batsmen, Kohli is miles ahead as a bat over Smith in ODI cricket just like Smith is the same over Kohli in Test Cricket, at least until last year he was until he got banned. We will see how Smith does in his comeback from here on.

 

Kohli does need to do well this World Cup but won't change the fact that he is the best ODI batsmen. 

 

Sampras never won French Open either, still regarded one of the best best of his times. Kohli anyway is too good a player to fail this many times. He will eventually average pretty high in World Cup.

 

As much as there is pressure on Kohli in this World Cup, he faced extreme pressure in England where he just averaged 15 runs before this tour. That too me was more pressure for him  than some of these World Cup games which people make big deal of that he could not perform in a World Cup game etc. Facing in England this time was high pressure because he had to face Anderson and co again for 5 test matches in a row, something which was on his mind big time and something where he failed miserably during his previous tour and hence had a lot to prove and he conquered that. These first few World Cup games have far less pressure, as not every game in the World Cup is a World Cup final, so when people say World Cup pressure, well I don't think its that much in first 4-5 games as much it will be closer to the playoffs. Kohli will come out trump. 

[rtmohanlal]

'pressure' is a context based matter. Just because all these players are playing in a world cup doesn't mean every body is having the same amount of pressure. For me the man with the most pressure in this world cup is Virat being the captain of a nation of   crores of  cricket crazy emotional  people  &  him carrying the  'best batsman' tag as of now. Next in line comes Amla the senior most batsman  of a team that has never won the world cup and carries the tag of 'chokers' . And we are seeing as to what this much pressure of expectations is  doing to him . then comes  Root & Kane in that order. Both represents nations that has never won a world cup. Root a bit more because of high expectations placed on this no: 1 ranked team. Kane is the captain. last only  is Smith.  Aussies has won it 5 times, he is not the captain, can play with a nothing to lose attitude.Smith's situation is that of a 'born  evil  criminal  trying to do some thing good  for the society'.  

[vvvslaxman]

It is not pressure. Steve SMith is closer to Dhoni than Kohli. Dodgy technique. But excellent survival skills. Smith has more range of shots though. His survival skills enable him to weather the tough part and cash in on when things get easier. Kohli is an out and out a stroke player where he is likely to play some false shots early on. Although he very rarely does he still does. Especially in the off stump channel Smith negotiates a tad better than Kohli. He doesn't get out edging to slips or keeper as often as Kohli does. Let me give you a little stat

 

Kohli has been dismissed 187 times in the one dayers 44 times caught behind

Smith dismissed 84 times 15 times caught behind

 

This is excluding how many times they got caught in the slips. 

[Deleted_User_1]

Cheat >>>>> Rat

Edited June 6, 2019 by Audiophile

[Pollack]

18 hours ago, rkt.india said:

Same Smith's record is no where near Kohli, so, he cant be better than Kohli just because he scored more runs than Kohli in WC.

Sachin not only scored in bilaterals but also in World Cups even if he failed in the finals of World Cup. So he is way ahead of Gilchrist who scored a crucial century in WC. 

Same is not the case with Kohli. He has been underwhelming except bilaterals and t20WC. Hopefully he opens a new chapter in his career this WC and be invincible.

[mishra]

Without going by stats, Smith is a fighter. If he decides, he can survive and bat out his team off the wall. He has far greater survival technique then Kohli.

 

You can bank on him in important games.

[Adi BB]

15 minutes ago, mishra said:

Without going by stats, Smith is a fighter. If he decides, he can survive and bat out his team off the wall. He has far greater survival technique then Kohli.

 

You can bank on him in important games.

Agree on Smith but kohli himself has great fighting spirit even when he looks troubled ,the England tour last year was enough to convince me that kohli apart from being a stroke maker is also a great fighter and has solid survival skills 

[vayuu1]

Problem with Kohli is the casual approach that some Times creeps into his game early on,take for example yesterday,or his tendancy for that matter,guy gets out either playing expensive drive or nudging towards 3rd man, especially when it's moving, Kohli needs to watch tendu's 241 Sydney where he never played cover drive, just because that was his bane through out the tour,you can't Just nudge to 3rd man Like Gambhir when Ball is swinging.

[nevada]

Not even a Maniac thread could jinx Smith. The guy is truly special.

[maniac]

2 hours ago, nevada said:

Not even a Maniac thread could jinx Smith. The guy is truly special.

I opened a thread looooong time back when he was still a leg spinner who could bat and people here were calling him a hack saying the word should not be used for him 

[G_B_]

@maniac

 

can i change this title to Steve Smith, pants down is the best cricketer in the world.

[MechEng]

@Gollum I see him piling up runs in coming tests.

[Vijy]

Smith is the best Test batsman of his era by some distance. In ODIs he has the ability to play well in clutch matches, but overall I would not put him even in the top 10 ODI batsmen currently around today - there are others with higher avg, others with higher SR, and some with both. And in T20s, the less said the better.