Countdown to Kohli being ranked number 1

[Trichromatic]

Kohli drops to rank 2.

 

1	Steve Smith  AUS		929
2	Virat Kohli	IND	919
3	Joe Root	ENG	851
4	Kane Williamson	NZ	847
5	David Warner	AUS	820
6	Cheteshwar Pujara	IND	759
7	Dimuth Karunaratne	SL	754
8	Dinesh Chandimal	SL	733
9	Jonny Bairstow	ENG	729
10	Dean Elgar	SA	724
11	Aiden Markram	SA	703
12	Ross Taylor	NZ	697
13	Kraigg Brathwaite	WI	695
14	Hashim Amla	SA	673
15	Azhar Ali	PAK	672
16	Francois du Plessis	SA	665
17	Alastair Cook	ENG	651
18	Kusal Mendis	SL	641
19	Usman Khawaja	AUS	633
20	Shakib Al Hasan	BAN	632
21	Angelo Mathews	SL	607
22	Shaun Marsh	AUS	605
23	Ajinkya Rahane	IND	604
24	Asad Shafiq	PAK	602
25	Lokesh Rahul	IND	601

 

 

Held #1 briefly for less than 2 weeks.

[Gollum]

Such is the power of Steve Smith, leapfrogs past Kohli without even playing . Him losing the top spot was an accident cum blatant injustice...there is only 1 King in this era and he is Mighty Smith. Rest all are pretenders. 

[Trichromatic]

1 minute ago, Gollum said:

Such is the power of Steve Smith, leapfrogs past Kohli without even playing . Him losing the top spot was an accident cum blatant injustice...there is only 1 King in this era and he is Mighty Smith. Rest all are pretenders. 

Smith is hugely benefited by playing on flat pitches of Aus.

[Gollum]

5 minutes ago, Trichromatic said:

Smith is hugely benefited by playing on flat pitches of Aus.

He has done well even overseas. Averages above 40 everywhere except Bangladesh. Pwned India in 2017 and NZ in a series where they laid greentops to neuter him. 2015 Ashes, some gems in SA....he is on course to becoming the GOAT human batsman, Bradman is God. 

[Trichromatic]

1 minute ago, Gollum said:

He has done well even overseas. Averages above 40 everywhere except Bangladesh. Pwned India in 2017 and NZ in a series where they laid greentops to neuter him. 2015 Ashes, some gems in SA....he is on course to becoming the GOAT human batsman, Bradman is God. 

Aus scored 500+ on both those greentops of NZ. 

 

Apart from India series, and few fifties in Eng/SA 2010-2014, he has been mostly gone missing on tough tracks and scored way too heavily on flat pitches.

[Gollum]

6 minutes ago, Trichromatic said:

Aus scored 500+ on both those greentops of NZ. 

 

Apart from India series, and few fifties in Eng/SA 2010-2014, he has been mostly gone missing on tough tracks and scored way too heavily on flat pitches.

Smith led his team like a great commander and his team mates weren't useless, that's why they scored 500+. Pity Kohli can't inspire his team mates to rise to the occasion, may be he himself is at fault for favoring buddies and keeping everyone insecure about their places. NZ was a triumph not just of Smith's unmatched batting genius but also his captaincy prowess against the cunning Baz. 

 

2nd sentence applies to all great batsman. How many times have Sachin or Lara played great knocks on difficult pitches? Everyone dismissed Smith's legendary 2015 Ashes without taking into consideration the fact that swing is more of a challenge there than other facets. We  got placid dry tracks  but couldn't master the swing...yet Kohli's 100 in Birmingham is ATG and Smith's heroics are undermined. Everybody is so biased against Smith, world is so unfair !!!!