Virat is comfortably ahead of his contemporaries as a batsman- What a gem

[surajmal]

Smith will come down like Pointing and Hayden before him. Unless he is smart and retires in 4 yrs at most. 

Edited January 29, 2018 by surajmal

[Deleted_User_1]

13 hours ago, Gollum said:

Smith has done well in India, Eng, NZ, SA...even held his own in UAE and Lanka. Guy won a WC for his country, in 5 years time Kohli may surpass Smith because the latter depends way too much on hand eye co ordination...a trait that declines with time. But now is not the time to proclaim Kohli as the king. Smith averages 64 in test cricket, even had he never played a single ODI/T20 game still he would have been my no 1. 

This! 64 is test cricket is no joke regardless of the era, when there is daylight between him and the rest of the pack with regard to average. Now question is how long can he keep it up since his game relies a lot on hand-eye coordination. Kohli's game is more classical which is less prone to deterioration with age. We all saw how bad Sehwag got once his reflexes went bye-bye.

Edited January 28, 2018 by dandaroy

[FischerTal]

give smith a pitch like johannesburg and watch that australian kathakali go back to the pavilion in no time. kohli's 50 and 41 in this match is worth more than any double hundred smith scored on the flat pancakes in straya. 

Edited January 28, 2018 by FischerTal

[Gollum]

5 hours ago, FischerTal said:

give smith a pitch like johannesburg and watch that australian kathakali go back to the pavilion in no time. kohli's 50 and 41 in this match is worth more than any double hundred smith scored on the flat pancakes in straya. 

Smith's 109 in Pune where he outscored both the Indian innings is proof of his mastery in difficult conditions. Don't tell me about his dropped chances there because in Jo'berg even Kohli got lucky on that front. 

[FischerTal]

28 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Smith's 109 in Pune where he outscored both the Indian innings is proof of his mastery in difficult conditions. Don't tell me about his dropped chances there because in Jo'berg even Kohli got lucky on that front. 

im not talking about spin. i dont think i have seen smith play outstandingly in difficult seaming conditions. even in england, australians dont get pitches like we did because of their superior bowling unit. 

[Gollum]

16 minutes ago, FischerTal said:

im not talking about spin. i dont think i have seen smith play outstandingly in difficult seaming conditions. even in england, australians dont get pitches like we did because of their superior bowling unit. 

Smith even in his debut series against Pak on a green seaming wicket made a 70 odd, did well in SA 2014 on Centurion type pitches (2nd test this month was flattish, not a difficult seaming pitch). Did well in the D/N test against SA, a low scoring match in WI, against SA in Hobart (Aus 85 all out wallah) and most importantly both the Ashes tests of 2015 which Aus won (check the scorecard, it wasn't flat like some make it out to be). He has a much better resume than others even on difficult tracks. 

[FischerTal]

3 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Smith even in his debut series against Pak on a green seaming wicket made a 70 odd, did well in SA 2014 on Centurion type pitches (2nd test this month was flattish, not a difficult seaming pitch). Did well in the D/N test against SA, a low scoring match in WI, against SA in Hobart (Aus 85 all out wallah) and most importantly both the Ashes tests of 2015 which Aus won (check the scorecard, it wasn't flat like some make it out to be). He has a much better resume than others even on difficult tracks. 

lets wait and see if south africans will dish out this type of pitch to smith.

[NameGoesHere]

10 hours ago, dandaroy said:

This! 64 is test cricket is no joke regardless of the era, when there is daylight between him and the rest of the pack with regard to average. Now question is how long can he keep it up since his game relies a lot on hand-eye coordination. Kohli's game is more classical which is less prone to deterioration with age. We all saw how bad Sehwag got once his reflexes went bye-bye.

Also agreed.

[Trichromatic]

2 hours ago, Gollum said:

Smith even in his debut series against Pak on a green seaming wicket made a 70 odd, did well in SA 2014 on Centurion type pitches (2nd test this month was flattish, not a difficult seaming pitch). Did well in the D/N test against SA, a low scoring match in WI, against SA in Hobart (Aus 85 all out wallah) and most importantly both the Ashes tests of 2015 which Aus won (check the scorecard, it wasn't flat like some make it out to be). He has a much better resume than others even on difficult tracks. 

Aus were 6-217 with just 47 runs lead when Smith came to bat. Scored 77 runs and gave Aus a decent score to defend. 

 

And he came to pitch at no 8!

[Gollum]

5 minutes ago, Trichromatic said:

Aus were 6-217 with just 47 runs lead when Smith came to bat. Scored 77 runs and gave Aus a decent score to defend. 

 

And he came to pitch at no 8!

Come to think of it, baby Smith in his debut series (when he wasn't even a specialist batsman) on a green top outclassed prime Kohli who had the worst returns ever for a visiting batsman to UK that too on much easier tracks. 

[kira]

15 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Come to think of it, baby Smith in his debut series (when he wasn't even a specialist batsman) on a green top outclassed prime Kohli who had the worst returns ever for a visiting batsman to UK that too on much easier tracks. 

Hyperbole, too bad I don't have the time to save all your posts so that I can throw them back at you when kohli eventually surpasses smith in test average as well

[Gollum]

11 minutes ago, kira said:

Hyperbole, too bad I don't have the time to save all your posts so that I can throw them back at you when kohli eventually surpasses smith in test average as well

No need to because I think eventually Kohli will match/surpass Smith in totality, made a similar post when he was owning our batsmen last year on turners. However unlike some I am not that jingoistic that I will deny the foreign players due praise and adulation. 

[mancalledsting]

On 28/01/2018 at 8:39 AM, ravishingravi said:

Across formats, yes. It’s an insane record. For tests, Smith is right now in different league. SA series will test him though. 

You say South Africa will test him, but will they prepare as spicy tracks as they did for Indian batsmen given the capability of Australian seam attack. Cape Town and Joburg were two of the most pace friendly tracks I've ever seen.doubt they'll roll those out for Australia. So if smith gets to play on flatter tracks, would dumbos on this forum go ahead and proclaim Smith better than Kohli in South Africa. Even though circumstances the same. People like to go on about Sehwag's average in sought Africa but I'd like to see South African openers averages across the same game. That would tell a story.

[mancalledsting]

Virat Kohli's history of choking in big games:

 

WC Final 2011: 3rd highest run scorer for India in chase of 274

 

CT 2013 SF: Second highest run scorer in the match

 

CT Trophy 2013 Final: highest run scorer in the match

 

WT20 Final 2014: highest run scorer in the match 

 

WT20 (effective QF) 2016: highest run scorer in the match

 

WT20 SF 2016: highest run scorer in the match 

 

 

Not sure how 'Kohli fails in big LOI games' caught momentum on ICF but a lot of people seem to spout this crap with regularity. The argument has as much merit as calling someone 'not a great player' because he doesn't score in every single game. 

[SK_IH]

Bow down to the genius Kohli,it doesn't matter whether it's tests or ODIs,home or away,he keeps piling it on 

 

[kira]

but but smith is only slightly behind kohli in odis

[rtmohanlal]

Virat is  unarguably ' the best finisher and there by chaser' of big totals(which implies easy batting conditions). But he has some boxes to tick  like performing chasing  in world cup knock outs against quality opponents,improve his records in tournament finals etc etc.

[kosingh]

Virat has 3 hundreds in the last 4 ODIs. 6 hundreds in the last 15 ODIs. He is in sublime form. Not sure how ODIs, Tests and T20s should be weighed in determining who is best overall. And I don't really care. We're fortunate to be witnessing one of the greatest spells of one of the greatest players. 

[goose]

Kohli is the Shah Rukh Khan to Tendulkar's Amitabh Bachhan

[Gambit]

He is a phenom. Best Indian bat in ODIs ever.