We Are Witnessing Two of the Greatest Ever

By Zaheer Clarke

Published December 11, 2017

In Virat Kohli and Steven Smith, we are witnessing two of the greatest batsmen to ever play the game.

Michael Clarke cracks emotionally during a tribute to Phillip Hughes before play in the first Test between Australia and India on the 1st day, December 9, 2014.
©Getty Images

For me, December 9, 2014, symbolises a remarkable turning point in cricket history. This day marked the beginning of the Border-Gavaskar Test series, which was hotly contested between Australia and India with the Aussies forever hospitable hosts. Two weeks prior, Phil Hughes, one of Australia’s promising batsman and their youngest ever twin centurion in a Test match, died tragically after a bouncer struck him in the neck during a Sheffield Shield match. On the morning of December 9, 2014, the entire country was still mourning. Tears flowed down the cheeks of every member of the worldwide cricket fraternity and it just kept on pouring.

At the beginning of the series, Virat Kohli and Steve Smith were considered batsmen with immense promise. However, they had not delivered on their potential in the most arduous format of the game, Test cricket. At the time, Kohli and Smith were averaging 39 and 40 respectively with the bat in Tests while Darren Bravo, dubbed the next Brian Lara by West Indian hopefuls, was averaging 43 in the same format. Since then, Kohli and Smith’s careers have soared in terms of runs and batting averages while that of Bravo’s has plummeted.

Figure 1. Cumulative Career Batting averages of the Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Darren Bravo from December 9, 2014 to December 9, 2017.

Kohli was always considered adept to white ball cricket, with his returns for India in Tests sporadic at best. Smith, on the other hand, was initially considered a leg-spinner who could bat a bit. He actually spent the majority of his early years batting between positions five and eight in the Australian line-up. Their careers, however, and all that changed in that charged series between Australia and India that commenced on December 9, 2014.

Since that time, Kohli has scored an astonishing 3413 runs inclusive of 14 centuries and six half-centuries at an average of almost 67 in only 34 Test matches. Similarly, Smith has been no snail either. Since December 9, 2014, Smith has scored a blistering 4022 runs including 17 centuries and 13 half-centuries at a mind-boggling average of 74 in merely 36 Test matches.

Steve Smith emulated Shane Warne and made the Australian Test team as a leg spin bowler. He has turned out to be one of the greatest Test batsmen of all-time.
(Credit: Reuters/ Source: Eurosport)

To date, Kohli and Smith’s career batting averages in Tests are 53 and 60 respectively. Kohli’s average of 53.75 is almost identical to Sachin Tendulkar’s (53.78) and higher than Brian Lara’s (52.88), Rahul Dravid’s (52.31) and Ricky Ponting’s (51.85). Smith, in contrast, has one of the best batting averages among batsmen who have played 50 or more Test matches. Currently, only the colossal Don Bradman (99.94) and the artistic Herbert Sutcliffe (60.73) have averaged higher than Smith (60.40) for a career of 50 or more Test matches.

Last week, the Test rankings for Test batsmen came out and unsurprisingly, Smith and Kohli topped the rankings at one and two with 938 and 893 points respectively out of a maximum of 1000. These point values are not far from their lifetime bests of 941 for Smith and 895 for Kohli. Interestingly, earlier this year, Smith’s 941 points tally had him tied for the fifth-best ever-achieved ranking by a batsman in Test cricket. He leapfrogged Clyde Walcott, Viv Richards, Garfield Sobers and Kumar Sangakkara, who were all tied for joint-sixth on 938 points. Interestingly, only Bradman (961), Len Hutton (945), Jack Hobbs (942) and Ponting (942) have reached higher zeniths than Smith has in Test cricket.

Steven Smith just surpassed Viv Richards, Garry Sobers, Clyde Walcott and Kumar Sangakkara’s peaks as a batsman in Test cricket.
© Getty Images

In the shorter formats, Kohli is the obvious King. After the release of the latest rankings for One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket, Kohli was ranked number one in both categories. In recent vintage, AB de Villiers was considered the best player in all three formats. However, at present, there is no doubt that Kohli is the unsurpassed one. He is ranked second in Tests and first in both ODIs and T20Is.

Presently, in ODIs, Kohli has the best lifetime average of 521 players who have played 50 or more ODI matches. Kohli’s astounding average of 55 coupled with a strike rate of 91 has been achieved while produced over 9000 runs including 32 centuries and 45 half-centuries in 202 matches. He is unmatched and one day could be considered the greatest ODI batsman of all-time, rivalling Viv Richards and my namesake Zaheer Abbas.

Virat Kohli first showed his immense potential in the white ball shorter versions of the game.
(Source: Daily Telegraph)

While other cricketers have career averages statistically close to Kohli’s in ODIs, it is in the T20I format that Kohli has been Bradman-esque. Kohli’s average of 52.86 in T20Is is berserk considering that of the 53 players who have played 50 or more T20I matches or the 36 players who have played 50 or more T20I innings, the next closest average to Kohli’s is 36.95 by JP Duminy. Even if we lower the cut-off to 20 T20I innings, what is observed is Kohli, daylight and then everyone else.

Table 1. Batsmen with the top-10 batting averages in T20 Internationals (minimum 20 innings).

Player	Innings	Runs	Batting Average	100s/50s
Virat Kohli	51	1956	52.86	0/18
Joe Root	23	743	39.10	0/4
Michael Hussey	30	721	37.94	0/4
Kevin Pietersen	36	1176	37.93	0/7
Aaron Finch	33	1132	37.73	0/7
Misbah-ul-Haq	34	788	37.52	0/3
JP Duminy	67	1700	36.95	0/9
Faf du Plessis	39	1191	36.09	1/7
Brendan McCullum	70	2140	35.66	2/13
MS Dhoni	72	1281	35.58	0/1

Several individuals consider Bradman as the greatest batsman to play Test cricket. Similarly, many pundits conclude that Tendulkar is the greatest batsmen to play Test and ODI cricket combined. By the time Smith’s career ends, he may very well be the second-best Test batsman we have seen all-time. Likewise, when Kohli finally puts down his bat, he may well be the greatest batsman to play all formats of the game: Tests, ODIs and T20Is.

Years ago when I first saw Kohli, I declared that he was the perfect blend of Dravid and Tendulkar while when I saw the early stages of Smith’s ascendancy, it became obvious to me that he was a fusion of Ponting and Steve Waugh.

Kohli (left) and Smith (right) will go down as two of the greatest batsmen the game has seen.
(Source: Deccan Chronicle)

These two players, Kohli and Smith, have emerged from promising potential to sheer greatness since December 9, 2014 and it has been a pleasure to watch them. At the tender ages of 29 and 28 respectively, the world and I hope to see their greatness on display for many years to come.

Make no mistake my friends, we are witnessing two of the greatest batsmen to ever play the game.

Until next time…

Zaheer E. Clarke is a freelance sportswriter and a multi-award-winning blogger. He can be reached at zaheer.clarke@gmail.com. Follow him on Facebook at Zaheer Facts, Lies & Statistics, or on Twitter at @zaheerclarke.

This blog article was published in the Western Mirror on December 11, 2017.