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

[ImpatientLime]

smith's greatest talent is to score more runs than anyone else.

 

[TheJediBrah]

this is basically the most important thing about batting btw

Starc wasn't the best bowler today because all he did that was better than the other bowlers was take wickets

 

[ImpatientLime]

Can you cite some examples of matches like this?... genuine question, because he does seem to score runs pretty much everywhere across any reasonable sample sets.

ashes 2015.

he got squared up all over the shop when the ball was moving laterally. tbf, so did every other **** in his team. he isn't the first and won't be the last great batsman to struggle on a seaming deck.

 

[Bijed]

People who have followed more batsmen's careers over the years will probably be able to put me right here, but one thing I would say about Smith's technique is that it might well be unorthodox enough so that when his eye starts to go, his batting could see a pretty rapid and significant decline and quickly usher in the end of his career, unless he's altered his technique by that point anyway. Not that the other's wouldn't also see a decline, but maybe less marked.

It won't be so much of a big deal if he carries on averaging 70 up until that point, though.

 

[TheJediBrah]

People who have followed more batsmen's careers over the years will probably be able to put me right here, but one thing I would say about Smith's technique is that it might well be unorthodox enough so that when his eye starts to go, his batting could see a pretty rapid and significant decline and quickly usher in the end of his career, unless he's altered his technique by that point anyway. Not that the other's wouldn't also see a decline, but maybe less marked.

It won't be so much of a big deal if he carries on averaging 70 up until that point, though.

I've been thinking this for the last few years tbh

 

[indiaholic]

Won't happen before he is 33-34. By then he would be in the ATG class.

 

[ImpatientLime]

then he might just chanders it

 

[TheJediBrah]

TPC also seems like the guy who wouldn't have much of a life outside cricket. Like he might play until he's 45 just cause he has nothing better to do.


I know I'm talking ****, just thinking out loud tbh

 

[cnerd123]

I know I'm talking ****, just thinking out loud tbh

Oh we know already, you dont need to clarify

 

[harsh.ag]

Oh we know already, you dont need to clarify

*don't

Sweet because the heedless ***** invited a needless ban and is now powerless to correct this monstrosity.

 

[Slifer]

I see people still posting nonsense about Smith cashing in on flat Aussie wickets as if to conveniently forget his last outings to RSA and England. As a matter of fact, Smith hasn't averaged sub 40 anywhere since 2013, that's mind boggling.

In the meantime Root has stunk it up in Bangladesh and stunk it up on the said flat Aussie wickets. Kohli well we know what he did in England so no comment there. KW not in Smith's league atm.

 

[Spark]

I see people still posting nonsense about Smith cashing in on flat Aussie wickets as if to conveniently forget his last outings to RSA and England. As a matter of fact, Smith hasn't averaged sub 40 anywhere since 2013, that's mind boggling.

In the meantime Root has stunk it up in Bangladesh and stunk it up on the said flat Aussie wickets. Kohli well we know what he did in England so no comment there. KW not in Smith's league atm.

His last outing to England was middling at best tbf. His previous tour to England was actually more consistent if less productive from a raw runs point of view.

Was vital in SA though.

 

[ImpatientLime]

yeah smith's 2015 tour to england is a great example of stats not telling the whole story.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I see people still posting nonsense about Smith cashing in on flat Aussie wickets as if to conveniently forget his last outings to RSA and England. As a matter of fact, Smith hasn't averaged sub 40 anywhere since 2013, that's mind boggling.

In the meantime Root has stunk it up in Bangladesh and stunk it up on the said flat Aussie wickets. Kohli well we know what he did in England so no comment there. KW not in Smith's league atm.

The number of times I've had to repeatedly point out that Smith's away record is far superior to any of the others', and that he is unarguably the least hometrack bully-ish of all of them is appalling.

Yet people keep rocking up day after day with the same patently false rubbish

 

[Slifer]

His last outing to England was middling at best tbf. His previous tour to England was actually more consistent if less productive from a raw runs point of view.

Was vital in SA though.

If Smith's tour to England was middling(it wasnt) then what was Kohli's tour to England? And what was Root's tour on the flat Aussie wickets?? And Root's tour to Bangladesh???

 

[Spark]

If Smith's tour to England was middling(it wasnt) then what was Kohli's tour to England? And what was Root's tour on the flat Aussie wickets?? And Root's tour to Bangladesh???

Poor, poor, and poor.

I dunno why this is controversial, I'm not going to pretend that Smith's tour was amazing when it really wasn't.

Having said that, I'm mostly saying that because the 5th Test was a dead rubber, I'm not going to discount a Lord's Test win just because the pitch was flatter than TB. (We could have used a little more of that in Cardiff when the pitch was also quite docile...)

 

[Slifer]

It wasn't amazing but it was very very good. And on non flat wickets no less. Compared to what Kohli did it was night and day. Ditto Roots last outing in Oz.

 

[Spark]

It wasn't amazing but it was very very good. And on non flat wickets no less. Compared to what Kohli did it was night and day. Ditto Roots last outing in Oz.

Lord's and Oval are both fairly flat pitches. Lord's in particular can trip batsmen up at times and overhead conditions are what they are, but those were good pitches to bat on.

You expect that coming to England though. Overall, including 2013, his record in England is actually reasonable considering the quality of bowling he's faced and considering how many other visiting batsmen have completely bombed against Anderson and Broad since 2010. But he'd be the first to admit that he could and should have done better in 2015.

 

[Slifer]

Still doesn't detract from the point that he's made runs away on no flat wickets. Unless we're going to also say that wickets in England and everywhere else are flat. In which case, Smith would still be the best among his contemporaries.

And u still haven't addressed Kohli's poor performance in England and Root's on flat Aussie wickets (and in Bangladesh).

 

[Spark]

Still doesn't detract from the point that he's made runs away on no flat wickets. Unless we're going to also say that wickets in England and everywhere else are flat. In which case, Smith would still be the best among his contemporaries.

And u still haven't addressed Kohli's poor performance in England and Root's on flat Aussie wickets (and in Bangladesh).

Yeah I did? I called them poor, and honestly that's being very kind to Kohli. They were rubbish.