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Steve Smith has, in the space of 12 months, gone from obscurity to becoming one of the fixtures in our Test team.
He is now seen as Australia’s next Test captain. Marcus North on the other hand is no longer in the national set-up.
Marcus North’s Test career started off well, with a hundred on debut in South Africa, but soon went south. It was over within two years, due mainly to the ‘I” word – inconsistency. In the interests of full disclosure, I’ll make it clear that I’m a big fan of both players for various reasons.
North’s Test career lasted just 22 months, for 21 Tests, 35 innings, 1,171 runs @ 35.48. Strike Rate: 48.14
Smith has played 20 Tests in two stints over four years, 38 innings, 1,361 runs @ 40.02. Strike Rate: 51.69.
Aside from almost playing the same amount of Tests, they have a lot else in common.
Inconsistency
North: 5 x 100s and 4 x 50s (including 2 x 90s). 7 scores of 90+ out of 35 innings (20%) puts him above most of the modern guns (Ponting had 3 scores, Clarke 4, Warner 3, Hussey 9).
The knock against him was that he made 21 scores (60%) under 20. It was feast or a famine. If he got to 20, he averaged 87.67. If he didn’t, he averaged 5.67.
Smith: 4 x 100’s/ 6 x 50’s (1 x 90 + an 89).
21 scores under 20 (55%).
Averages 90.15 if he gets to 20. If not: 9.
Highest scores overseas
North: 13 Tests overseas and 8 at home. His 5 centuries and 2 nineties were all overseas
Smith: 12 Tests overseas and 8 home. His 2 centuries and 5 fifties were overseas.
Highest scoring in first innings
North: 10 of his 14 scores of 20+ were in the first innings.
Smith: 10 of his 17 scores of 20+ were in first innings (and 7 of 10 scores 50+)
Smith has actually reversed his preference for scoring. In his first Test stint (5 Tests in 2010-11) he scored more in every second innings than the first. Since he came back into the team (India in March 2013), he has scored more in the first innings in 12 of 13 Tests he’s batted twice.
Bowling
North: 14 wickets @ 42
Smith: 11 @ 48.
Smith played some crucial rescue innings to set up victories, mainly with Brad Haddin in the Ashes and then Shaun Marsh at Centurion, so was it the match results that differentiate them?
Impact on Match Results – 10 highest scores
North: 7 x W, 1 x L, 2 x D
Smith: 4 x W, 4 x L, 2 x D
To be fair to Smith, four of North’s seven winning Tests were against New Zealand and the West Indies and Smith hasn’t played against either of them.
Having played about the same number of Tests, their statistics are similar. Could the argument be made that North was hard done by?
If he hadn’t made his debut when he was nearly 30, would he have got a second chance? Had his last series not been the disastrous 2010-11 Ashes would he have been kept his spot? You be the judge.
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