30 Test hundreds

[trundler]

Something memorable. Every great sportsman needs a story, some stellar highlight of their career. For me that would be a series win in England. I'd call him an ATG too though.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Champions always leave on a high; unless you're Tiger Woods...and you fight once more to be the best. Alpha and Omega!

 

[OverratedSanity]

If Steve Smith retired right now, I'd consider him an atg easily. And rightfully so. The man has ridiculous stats. He's had great series away to teams with the best attacks: RSA, England, India and NZ. I believe he averages 40 + home and away vs everyone (except Bangladesh). He's done much better at home but I believe he's the only one among his contemporaries to average 50 + away. What more is left for him to prove??

This is a much less impressive stat for a short career.

But I agree with the rest.

 

[Slifer]

This is a much less impressive stat for a short career.

But I agree with the rest.

None of his contemporaries and very few from the past can match this . From the top of my head I believe only sachin, greg Chappell, and kanhai averaged 40 + everywhere. And 64 tests is enough of a career imo.

 

[OverratedSanity]

None of his contemporaries and very few from the past can match this . From the top of my head I believe only sachin, greg Chappell, and kanhai averaged 40 + everywhere.

More could have matched it if they only toured those countries once or twice like Smith has. One one hand t's impressive that he's done it but it's not representative of what might happen if he tours everywhere 4-5 times. It's difficult to maintain a decent performance everywhere over multiple tours. You get more chances to succeed, but more chances to fail and bring it down too.

 

[Slifer]

Something memorable. Every great sportsman needs a story, some stellar highlight of their career. For me that would be a series win in England. I'd call him an ATG too though.

Um he destroyed what is probably an atg spin attack in India. Not to mention making runs vs Philander, Steyn and morkel in rsa. Plus he's already conquered England in England. U have 3 stories right there.

 

[Bolo]

More could have matched it if they only toured those countries once or twice like Smith has. One one hand t's impressive that he's done it but it's not representative of what might happen if he tours everywhere 4-5 times. It's difficult to maintain a decent performance everywhere over multiple tours. You get more chances to succeed, but more chances to fail and bring it down too.

Tougher to manage this type of consistency in a short career where a single poor series will ruin your record. It's not all that meaningful because he's only played a couple of games in most countries and a single poor series will still ruin his record in most of them, but it's very impressive at this stage.

 

[Tom Flint]

Um he destroyed what is probably an atg spin attack in India. Not to mention making runs vs Philander, Steyn and morkel in rsa. Plus he's already conquered England in England. U have 3 stories right there.

'Conquered England in England'?
In losing series, how do you work that one out? Take nothing away from him I think he's class and will be an atg no problem.
But can't say he's conquered England in England!
Cook in aus 2010/11 was conquering on away soil

 

[stephen]

Something memorable. Every great sportsman needs a story, some stellar highlight of their career. For me that would be a series win in England. I'd call him an ATG too though.

India 2017. In fact basically the whole of 2017.

 

[Slifer]

'Conquered England in England'?
In losing series, how do you work that one out? Take nothing away from him I think he's class and will be an atg no problem.
But can't say he's conquered England in England!
Cook in aus 2010/11 was conquering on away soil

Afaic I meant he's made runs in England unless 500 + runs @ 50+ isn't conquering. I dont see what the series result has to do with anything. If that's the case then Kohli was an utter failure in his most recent tour to England.

 

[Slifer]

More could have matched it if they only toured those countries once or twice like Smith has. One one hand t's impressive that he's done it but it's not representative of what might happen if he tours everywhere 4-5 times. It's difficult to maintain a decent performance everywhere over multiple tours. You get more chances to succeed, but more chances to fail and bring it down too.

He could've just as easily failed and never returned to correct his record (see Lara away to India). Fact of the matter is, Smith among his contemporaries and even all time is uniquely consistent.

 

[TheJediBrah]

More could have matched it if they only toured those countries once or twice like Smith has. One one hand t's impressive that he's done it but it's not representative of what might happen if he tours everywhere 4-5 times. It's difficult to maintain a decent performance everywhere over multiple tours. You get more chances to succeed, but more chances to fail and bring it down too.

This doesn't add up, and you've kind of contradicted yourself here. If a main reason players have bad records in certain countries is because they had a bad tour and didn't get a chance to fix it, then you can't then go and say that if they had 4-5 tours they'd be more likely to have a bad record in some countries. If anything it's the opposite, if you're a great player and you get 4-5 tours somewhere then it's very unlikely that you're going to have a bed record there, unless you genuinely struggle there for a reason.

 

[nightprowler10]

Surprised not many people had mentioned Younis.

 

[morgieb]

Bump.

Current century stats:

Kohli 27 (31 years, 28 days)
Smith 26 (30, 184)
Warner 23 (33, 37)
Williamson 21 (29, 117)
Taylor 19 (35, 270)
Pujara 18 (31, 312)
Root 17 (28, 338)
Azhar 15 (34, 287)
Shafiq 12 (33, 309)
Elgar 12 (32, 175)
Chandimal 11 (30, 15)
Latham 11 (27, 245)
Rahane 11 (31, 180)
du Plessis 9 (35, 143)
Karunaratne 9 (31, 226)
Mathews 9 (32, 184)
Tamim 9 (30, 258)
Brathwaite 8 (27, 2)
Bravo 8 (30, 300)
Khawaja 8 (32, 350)
Stokes 8 (28, 182)
Mominul 8 (28, 65)
Watling 8 (34, 147)

Out of those I'm about 99% sure Kohli and Smith get there and think Williamson is fairly likely. Pujara and Warner might get there but I think they're probably less than a 50/50 shot at this point. Who knows with Root, we'll see what happens for the rest of the winter. He does still have a long time to go though. Taylor is pretty much a write-off though.

Out of the others the only one I can realistically see reaching it is Latham. Might struggle in terms of Tests though so he's more of a Pujara/Warner rather than the Big 4.

Some of the next gen that might have a shot include Babar, Labuschagne, Shaw, Gill and Mendis. But it's hard to really gauge their chances as they're mostly only just beginning. In particular the first two are probably too far behind unless they reach Big 4 levels.

 

[jimmy101]

Chandimal's done well. Scored more tons than I would have guessed.

 

[Coronis]

ftr, Kohli needs 3 centuries in 17 innings to be the fastest to 30 (very achievable) and Smith needs 4 in 32 (no chance if he keeps playing like this!)

 

[Daemon]

Man the conversation from post #268 onwards with a complete TJB meltdown is great (awful)

 

[OverratedSanity]

Among the ones in single digits right now, I'd take a punt on babar. Looks really special and reportedly has a superb work ethic.

 

[vcs]

Babar Azam has the talent but Pakistan do not play too many Tests and opportunities could get even thinner on the ground if the team's performance doesn't improve. Australia have already downgraded them to 2 Tests early in the summer. He has all the ingredients to end up with 25+ though.

 

[vcs]

Root is young enough to still make it but he needs to hurry up and enter a real purple patch similar to what Smith and Kohli have been going through recently. Smith's whole career post 2013 has been a purple patch and Kohli post 2016 has also been pretty consistent with his output.