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Placing our bets on "Test Cricket's Young Fab Four"

Which of these "Young Fabbies" will make it the biggest?

  • Total voters
    46
  • Poll closed .
centurymaker

centurymaker

Cricketer Of The Year
Regardless of who's best and who isn't, none of them are in the same league as their predecessors.

Smith needs to perform in non batting friendly conditions... (India series will be a good test of where he is actually at)
Kohli needs to perform in swinging conditions
Root needs to perform in Australia (which won't be difficult), and also score more tons


Blocky is mostly right. Although Smith is an excellent batsman, he truly has had an easy ride. He's been batting on pitches where you can literally fill your boots if you play riskless cricket.

If Smith now goes on to do well against the Indian spinners, when it's actually "spinning" & not when it's a slow road, then there won't be any reason left to say Smith isn't No.1. Atm however there is no clear cut best batsman.

Even if Smith scores 2 more tons against Pakistan i.e. in the 3rd Test, it still won't change anything. Kohli got 4 tons in 4 games in 14/15. No away batsman should be able to do that against a very good bowling attack away from home, unless conditions are friendly.
And the conditions have remained friendly ever since, exception being the odd day-night test in between. Voges was averaging something crazy too in Australia..

Smith is an amazing batsman who seems impossible to dismiss in Australia but it's too soon to say how good he truly is.
 
Blocky

Blocky

Banned
Smith's greatest talent is that ability to bat and bat and bat and not give away gift wickets. All of the others give so many cheap wickets away when they're ontop, Smith doesn't have that habit.
 
centurymaker

centurymaker

Cricketer Of The Year
Im expecting Smith to reach his best ever rating after Today's exceptional win! :)

Btw how good a bowler is Starc! I'll take Starc ahead of all these batsman anyday..
To be able to bowl like that in absolutely non-friendly conditions.. you have to be a truly great bowler. His deliveries were unplayable.

Starc > Smith, Kohli, Root & co.
 
Blocky

Blocky

Banned
Batsmen set up matches, bowlers win them.

But I'd still take Steyn, Abbott, Philander and Broad over Starc.

Broad and Starc are actually quite similar, they have some amazingly great spells where they tear the living **** out of teams that don't look troubled by anyone else, and go back to being absolute cack afterward.
 
TheJediBrah

TheJediBrah

Request Your Custom Title Now!
centurymaker said:
Regardless of who's best and who isn't, none of them are in the same league as their predecessors.

Smith needs to perform in non batting friendly conditions... (India series will be a good test of where he is actually at)
Kohli needs to perform in swinging conditions
Root needs to perform in Australia (which won't be difficult), and also score more tons


Blocky is mostly right. Although Smith is an excellent batsman, he truly has had an easy ride. He's been batting on pitches where you can literally fill your boots if you play riskless cricket.

If Smith now goes on to do well against the Indian spinners, when it's actually "spinning" & not when it's a slow road, then there won't be any reason left to say Smith isn't No.1. Atm however there is no clear cut best batsman.

Even if Smith scores 2 more tons against Pakistan i.e. in the 3rd Test, it still won't change anything. Kohli got 4 tons in 4 games in 14/15. No away batsman should be able to do that against a very good bowling attack away from home, unless conditions are friendly.
And the conditions have remained friendly ever since, exception being the odd day-night test in between. Voges was averaging something crazy too in Australia..

Smith is an amazing batsman who seems impossible to dismiss in Australia but it's too soon to say how good he truly is.
Click to expand...
You need to go back through the last few pages of this thread to see why you are so wrong
 
Blocky

Blocky

Banned
You just said in another thread that you think it's nonsense Smith shouldn't be considered the best batsman in the world at the moment.
 
centurymaker

centurymaker

Cricketer Of The Year
Blocky said:
Batsmen set up matches, bowlers win them.

But I'd still take Steyn, Abbott, Philander and Broad over Starc.

Broad and Starc are actually quite similar, they have some amazingly great spells where they tear the living **** out of teams that don't look troubled by anyone else, and go back to being absolute cack afterward.
Click to expand...
Might have got a bit carried away with Starc's bowling. But he's still an amazing bowler who is genuinely fast and has plenty of years ahead of him to prove his true worth.

IMO he is the biggest threat to India in Feb-March. Could blow Indian guys apart and take Australia to a (shock) Test win in India, especially if there's reverse swing.
 
Blocky

Blocky

Banned
centurymaker said:
Might have got a bit carried away with Starc's bowling. But he's still an amazing bowler who is genuinely fast and has plenty of years ahead of him to prove his true worth.

IMO he is the biggest threat to India in Feb-March. Could blow Indian guys apart and take Australia to a (shock) Test win in India, especially if there's reverse swing.
Click to expand...
That I agree with, if Aussie go in with the mindset that their pace bowlers need to be the reason they win, they'll do well - but I think they're going to be drawn into the same **** England was in picking guys like Maxwell and Agar in the line up.
 
Zinzan

Zinzan

Request Your Custom Title Now!
centurymaker said:
Regardless of who's best and who isn't, none of them are in the same league as their predecessors.

Smith needs to perform in non batting friendly conditions... (India series will be a good test of where he is actually at)
Kohli needs to perform in swinging conditions
Root needs to perform in Australia (which won't be difficult), and also score more tons


Blocky is mostly right. Although Smith is an excellent batsman, he truly has had an easy ride. He's been batting on pitches where you can literally fill your boots if you play riskless cricket.

If Smith now goes on to do well against the Indian spinners, when it's actually "spinning" & not when it's a slow road, then there won't be any reason left to say Smith isn't No.1. Atm however there is no clear cut best batsman.

Even if Smith scores 2 more tons against Pakistan i.e. in the 3rd Test, it still won't change anything. Kohli got 4 tons in 4 games in 14/15. No away batsman should be able to do that against a very good bowling attack away from home, unless conditions are friendly.
And the conditions have remained friendly ever since, exception being the odd day-night test in between. Voges was averaging something crazy too in Australia..

Smith is an amazing batsman who seems impossible to dismiss in Australia but it's too soon to say how good he truly is.
Click to expand...
Fine post, couldn't agree more. Bring on the India/Aust series.
 
ImpatientLime

ImpatientLime

International Regular
joe root will 100% fall away like all new english batsman who start out on fire (vaughan, trott, cook) and retire with a mid 40s average.

it's too sure and comfy a thing being a top level sportsman in the uk. you no longer have to push yourself once you've 'made it'.
 
vic_orthdox

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
ImpatientLime said:
joe root will 100% fall away like all new english batsman who start out on fire (vaughan, trott, cook) and retire with a mid 40s average.

it's too sure and comfy a thing being a top level sportsman in the uk. you no longer have to push yourself once you've 'made it'.
Click to expand...
I think he's bloody class, but I do wonder about him having wasted a run of unbelievable "touch" without getting as many hundreds as he should have. He's in such good form over the past few seasons that maybe he should be averaging 60 now, so if he does go through a (possibly inevitable) rough period, his average is still above 50.
 
ImpatientLime

ImpatientLime

International Regular
vic_orthdox said:
I think he's bloody class, but I do wonder about him having wasted a run of unbelievable "touch" without getting as many hundreds as he should have. He's in such good form over the past few seasons that maybe he should be averaging 60 now, so if he does go through a (possibly inevitable) rough period, his average is still above 50.
Click to expand...
heh my post was quite tongue in cheek again but i agree with this.

i see a lot of people posting 'all root needs to do is start converting more and he'll turn into an absolute beast'. well what if he goes the other way? i think there is something incredibly flaky in his game. he lacks that hard edge and ruthless mentality of smith and kohli.

like you say he has been in such staggering touch but just hasn't taken advantage of this enough.
 
Last edited:
Spikey

Spikey

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Blocky said:
Smith's greatest talent is that ability to bat and bat and bat and not give away gift wickets. All of the others give so many cheap wickets away when they're ontop, Smith doesn't have that habit.
Click to expand...
this is basically the most important thing about batting btw
 
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