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

[harsh.ag]

Wrt the poll, Riggins and Spikey were on the money. ***** the most wrong as per uz.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Really good post from you. Would have been perfect if you hadn't messed up your > and < symbols

Yes corrected now. Thanks

 

[ImpatientLime]

will joe root do the english thing and finish his test career with a sub 50 average?

 

[srbhkshk]

will joe root do the english thing and finish his test career with a sub 50 average?

Given that he never seems to score anything other than 51 - 99, with a special fondness for early 60s and 70s, I'd say he might end up pretty much where he is.

Future generations will wonder why he is rated below the other three when he is *clearly* as good and has no problems in any particular conditions.

 

[Victor Ian]

I really am at odds with how to value Root. Sure, he doesn't seem to go on and make hundreds like the rest, but he scores lots more 50's more reliably. If you had 6 roots in your team you would be pretty hard to beat. Throw in the tail and you'd probably always be ending up near 400 per innings. Root's 50's are usually worth a partnership of 100 unless the other batsmen are failing. Are people just getting upset because you can not cheer him on due to the tradition being it is cheers for 100. Why not cheers for two 50's?

Obviously Smith rules, but how can you split the other three except for cheers factor (which doesn't win games)?

[B]Name   InningsAve   MatchAvg  100s  50s[/B]
Smith  63.55        97.93     23    22
Kohli  53.75        83.61     20    15
Root   52.73        86.81     13    36
Willi' 50.62        82.76     17    26

If you allocate a cheer for 100 as double a cheer for a 50 (seems about right listening to crowds) then we have

Smith    68 cheers
Kohli    55 cheers
Root     62 cheers
Willi'   60 cheers

So help me.... What is the problem with Root? In runs per match and cheers per match, he is second best.

 

[Daemon]

If Root converted 1/3 of these 50s he'd be as good as Smith probably, which is an absurd level to expect him to perform at. He's only human.

 

[Slifer]

Smith daylight Kohli, Root, KW. Kohli is not that far ahead of Root and KW. Up until his recent run of form at home and in SL he was a touch under 50. Obviously, Root has a conversion issue but still overall their averages imo reflect their relative rankings to each other. Especially their average away from home.

 

[Victor Ian]

If Root converted 1/3 of these 50s he'd be as good as Smith probably, which is an absurd level to expect him to perform at. He's only human.

I expect Root to sort that issue out. When he does he is going to give 60 a decent shake as well because he wont be starting from 30's and 40's like many other players before they hit their God mode streak.

 

[ImpatientLime]

people have been saying he'll sort it out for some time now.

he is 65 tests deep. what more does he need to learn?

 

[TNT]

I really am at odds with how to value Root. Sure, he doesn't seem to go on and make hundreds like the rest, but he scores lots more 50's more reliably. If you had 6 roots in your team you would be pretty hard to beat. Throw in the tail and you'd probably always be ending up near 400 per innings. Root's 50's are usually worth a partnership of 100 unless the other batsmen are failing. Are people just getting upset because you can not cheer him on due to the tradition being it is cheers for 100. Why not cheers for two 50's?

Obviously Smith rules, but how can you split the other three except for cheers factor (which doesn't win games)?

[B]Name   InningsAve   MatchAvg  100s  50s[/B]
Smith  63.55        97.93     23    22
Kohli  53.75        83.61     20    15
Root   52.73        86.81     13    36
Willi' 50.62        82.76     17    26

If you allocate a cheer for 100 as double a cheer for a 50 (seems about right listening to crowds) then we have

Smith    68 cheers
Kohli    55 cheers
Root     62 cheers
Willi'   60 cheers

So help me.... What is the problem with Root? In runs per match and cheers per match, he is second best.

Because a double cheer is worth 5 points and a single cheer is worth 1/2 point.

Smith 126 pts
kohli 107.5 pts
Root 83 pts
Williamson 98 pts

 

[OverratedSanity]

I expect Root to sort that issue out. When he does he is going to give 60 a decent shake as well because he wont be starting from 30's and 40's like many other players before they hit their God mode streak.

I was expecting Root to sort it out but it's been 3 consecutive years where that problem has refused to go away. 8 hundreds out of 37 50+ scores since 2014. At some point you've got to start wondering whether it's not solvable.

It's possible that this is his god mode streak and he's not taking advantage of his form to pile up the stats.

 

[ImpatientLime]

I was expecting Root to sort it out but it's been 3 consecutive years where that problem has refused to go away. 8 hundreds out of 37 50+ scores since 2014. At some point you've got to start wondering whether it's not solvable.

It's possible that this is his god mode streak and he's not taking advantage of his form to pile up the stats.

thats the thing. if you go on just what you see, there arguably hasn't been a batsman on the planet in that time period in the 'touch' root has been in. he makes everything look so easy at times but just hasn't had that ruthless streak to really put his marker down like smith has.

 

[Victor Ian]

Still. He scores more per match than the other two. That's all that matters right?

 

[ImpatientLime]

hardly matters when you throw away your wicket like he did today and expose a vulnerable new batsman to the new ball and a pumped up fast bowling attack right at the fag end of the day.

that is why what he does is so reckless and annoying.

 

[TNT]

Still. He scores more per match than the other two. That's all that matters right?

But that only applies if he has more innings than Kohli, but regardless its what you score and not how many 50's you convert to hundreds.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Given that he never seems to score anything other than 51 - 99, with a special fondness for early 60s and 70s, I'd say he might end up pretty much where he is.

Future generations will wonder why he is rated below the other three when he is *clearly* as good and has no problems in any particular conditions.

People usually look at number of hundreds in a given set of conditions when they analyse that.

 

[Bijed]

Right now for me, Root does not really belong in this category.

Tier 1: Smith

Tier 2: Kohli, Williamson

Tier 3: Root, Pujara, Warner, Azhar.

Root's frustrating as hell in tests these days (and has been underwhelming generally in the Ashes this time), but I don't think Williamson is definitively a tier above - I think you could argue either way (I'd personally still have Root slightly ahead - I think people on here often undervalue his consistency). Don't think Azhar should be up there with the others either, would normally quibble over Warner too but tbf his last couple of series have been excellent.

 

[Victor Ian]

He does have more innings than Kohli, and by more than the 4 that you might expect with his 2 extra matches. But of course, (thanks limey) you could lay blame that he makes England have to bat twice this way and expose them to more chances to lose their 20 wickets.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I know the conversion thing started before he became captain, but the ability to keep the mind fresh has to be thwarted to some extent by the extra responsibility. It's not that he's necessarily changed the way he bats, it's just that he's not executing those shots well enough once he's in.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I will say this, if he ends his career without improving his conversion rate significantly but still ends up with his overall average near Kohli/KW, I'd consider him almost/just as good. I just don't think it's likely because there's little to suggest he'll maintain this average when his peak ends and his conversion rate may drop even further.