Who is cricket's finest batsman?

Roar Rookie

11th September, 2016

Anyone can contribute to The Roar and have their work featured alongside some of Australia’s most prominent sports journalists.

Steve Smith (AFP PHOTO / Theo KARANIKOS)

Sarthak Raj Baral new author

Roar Rookie

11th September, 2016

The annals of cricket history are positively brimming with players who transcended the art of batting, maestros whose names are now synonymous with the sport.

Every generation has contributed a few select batsmen, players who are perceived as the game’s elite. The 80s were blessed with Allan Border, Sunil Gavaskar and Viv Richards.

While the 90s and early noughties were a proverbial gold mine for batting talent, it was a generation that saw the likes of Steve Waugh, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Inzamam Ul-Huq, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Kumar Sangakkara, and Jacques Kallis come to the fore. Those names represent the very best the game has to offer, batting wise. The recent retirement of Sangakkara signalled the end of that generation’s reign.

A changing of the guard is in order, and a new generation of batsmen are ready to stake their claim. Four men, in particular, have shown the ability and desire to be seen as the best among their peers. Virat Kohli, Steven Smith, Joe Root and Kane Williamson are the brightest batting lights.

But just who is the best of the lot? Who is going to be considered the Sachin or the Lara of this generation? Who is going to take over once AB De Villiers vacates the throne? The numbers should shed some light on the matter.

Tests

Player	Matches	Innings	Not outs	Runs	Average	High score	Strike rate	100s	50s
Kohli	45	76	4	3245	45.06	200	53.59	12	12
Smith	44	81	11	4099	58.55	215	57.16	15	17
Root	46	84	11	4005	54.86	254	55.05	10	22
Williamson	52	95	9	4393	51.08	242*	48.88	14	22

As can be inferred from the numbers, the race to the top is an extremely tight one. But, if averages are the main criteria, Smith emerges as the clear winner. The pugnacious Australian captain has been in the form of his life during the last couple of years, and his average only recently dropped below 60 due to his slightly underwhelming series in Sri Lanka. He has scored runs against every opposition and in every country he has plays in.

Root and Williamson are neck-and-neck and continue to catch up to Smith. Root, however, is still yet to prove himself outside of England, especially in the subcontinent. Williamson, on the other hand, has barely put a foot wrong in the last couple of years. He has calmly accumulated phenomenal numbers, with the only chink in his armour being his average in South Africa, a paltry 21.16.

Virat Kohli has yet to fully establish himself in the Test arena and, at present, the Indian captain is slightly behind in terms of numbers. His recent double hundred in the West Indies is an indication that he is preparing to up the ante, as his abundant talent has never been in doubt.

Going by the numbers, though, Steven Smith emerges as the winner here.

ODIs

Player	Matches	Innings	Not outs	Runs	Average	High score	Strike rate	100s	50s
Kohli	171	163	23	7212	51.51	183	89.97	25	36
Smith	81	67	8	2434	41.25	149	87.02	5	13
Root	78	73	7	3017	45.71	125	85.81	8	17
Williamson	93	87	9	3666	47	145*	84.02	7	25

Three of the four batsmen have similar numbers, however, it is quite obvious that Virat Kohli is overwhelmingly in the lead here. He emerges on top on every single metric, from runs to the number of hundreds.

The fact that he has participated in more ODIs than the other three might have had a part to play, but that doesn’t take anything away from the phenomenal statistics he has managed to amass. His otherworldly ability to chase down seemingly impossible scores add further gloss to his statistics.

Smith, Root and Williamson have great numbers in their own right, but they need to go up another gear if they are to catch up to Kohli.

T20s

Player	Matches	Innings	Not outs	Runs	Average	High score	Strike rate	100s	50s
Kohli	45	41	12	1657	57.13	90*	135.48	0	16
Smith	30	25	5	431	21.55	90	122.44	0	2
Root	21	19	3	600	37.5	125	137.29	0	4
Williamson	35	33	5	967	34.53	72*	124.29	0	5

Once again, Kohli is significantly ahead of the pack, his average a full 20 runs above his closest competitor, Joe Root. Averaging 57.13 in this format of the game is unheard of and this, combined with his regular chasing heroics, such as the masterclass against Australia in the recent World T20, has firmly established him as the best T20 batsman in the world.

Smith, Root and Kohli have a lot of ground to cover in this format of the game, as they are considerably behind Kohli.

Rankings
The International Cricket Council Rankings are a good indicator of just who is in the ascendancy currently. Below is a table with the rankings in all three formats of the game, the ‘average ranking’ is also provided, a crude measure perhaps, but effective nonetheless.

Rankings

Batsman	Test ranking	ODI ranking	T20 ranking	Average ranking
Kohli	16th	2nd	1st	6.33
Smith	1st	16th	81st	32.66
Root	2nd	7th	5th	4.66
Williamson	3rd	4th	6th	4.33

Conclusion
Virat Kohli emerges on top in two of the three formats but falls behind in Test cricket, which is widely considered the premier format of the game. Steven Smith is top dog in Tests but is significantly behind in the other two formats. Kane Williamson and Joe Root have proven their consistency across all three formats, and this is perhaps the reason they both have the highest ‘average ranking’.

All four of these players have many more years left in their careers and only when the dust is settled will a clear victor emerge. For now, considering all the three formats, one would think that Virat Kohli slightly edges the other three, but time will decide which one of these men will be crowned king.

Join the conversation

Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.