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

[Shri]

Given time, he'll get back down to earth. Will still have this awesome peak but I don't think he'll finish off like a god that he is now.

 

[centurymaker]

and he is becoming too cautious a batsman. which is affecting him in other formats.

He used to be a free flowing free scoring batsman, but now he seems like he is hell bent on eliminating all remaining possibilities of getting out even if it means considerably lower SR. It is working in tests atm, especially at home but he has to adapt in other formats.

 

[centurymaker]

Given time, he'll get back down to earth. Will still have this awesome peak but I don't think he'll finish off like a god that he is now.

Yea, unless he retires relatively early like Clarke.

 

[Gob]

I can't give a flying **** about other formats as long as he keeps doing this in tests

 

[stephen]

Yeah I think his form in ODIs at the moment is a truer gage of where he's at right now. He's not hitting them cleanly and he's not even seeing them all that well. It's just that he's in an amazing place mentally right now which is why he's doing so well in tests.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Smith's technique is so heavily reliant on his hand and eye coordination, the way he covers the stumps and moves across and then flicks everything to the leg side with minimum error is a testament to his excellent hand and eye ability

How is this garbage still perpetuated?

 

[Burgey]

I was listening to the radio the other week and they were talking about TPC's movements before the ball is bowled. They were saying one of the former internationals who's now heavily into coaching goes around with this side-by-side video of all these great players with their different movements, yet at the point of release they're all pretty much in exactly the same position - head still, well balanced and largely side on. I can't for the life of me remember who the coach is they were talking about, but it would be a good video to watch.

The lesson in it really is that your trigger movements don't really matter a hell of a lot provided you're in line and in position as the ball is bowled. They matter more to us from an aesthetic POV than I think they do to the players.

Edit: have remembered that it's Phil Jaques who's done the video apparently.

 

[Burgey]

I don't get how not missing balls off your pads, which is a basic skill for any Test batsman, is somehow incredibly unique.

Smith's technique is no weirder on that front than Katich, GSmith or Chanderpaul. What makes Smith unique is almost entirely mental: the **** just refuses to play shots which he judges as too risky, and therefore is near impossible to get out once set.

He's an Aspy Steve Waugh.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

Not missing balls on your pads is about balance and keeping your head still, not eye. If you simply miss balls on your stumps because you don't have the hand-eye coordination to hit them then you should probably do something other than be a Test batsman with your life. The main reason most batsmen don't like to go that far across is because they overbalance and their head falls to the offside when they do so, because all their momentum is already going in that direction.

Yep. Plus it's difficult to take evasive action if you want to leave a shorter delivery. And you progressively close down the offside as a scoring area.

Standing on off stump is nothing new. The worst batsmen at my club did it. None of them scored like Smith. Steve, Graeme, Robin, Will or Jayden

 

[Spark]

Yeah, if there is one genuinely freakish thing about the technique it's that he is still so strong through the offside, and especially driving quite square on the offside, despite his technique and his backlift. If you think about the other notable batsman who used a similar setup, none of them were exactly noted for their square or cover driving.

Actually the one other batsman who I can think of who also takes an off-stump guard and is kind of legside dominant, especially off his pads, but has developed into an incredible square of the wicket driver is... Virat Kohli. So again, not really unique in that respect either.

 

[randycricfreak]

One thing in Root's favour is that he's already got 3 scores above 150. Williamson has just scored his first 150+ score and it wouldn't surprise me to see him get several in the years to come, but at this stage Root is easily the winner of making it count, when set.

 

[morgieb]

Funny thing is that Root does tend to make a lot of his centuries count. Either they're really big ones or came in tough situations. Just him getting there is the issue.

 

[Adders]

I dont think there is much worse posting than loling at a call made 4 years previous when you have the benefit of hindsight on your side.

 

[Daemon]

I dont think there is much worse posting than loling at a call made 4 years previous when you have the benefit of hindsight on your side.

There's definitely much worse posting than that. Just look at all his other ones.

 

[TheJediBrah]

dick move randycricfreak

 

[Adders]

dick move randycricfreak

Maybe not the best adjective to use given his username...........red tube has just crashed

 

[randycricfreak]

dick move randycricfreak

Not really.

I was just re-quoting them for fun, to see how much has changed over the years.


Amazing prediction from Crowe anyway

 

[sunilz]

Kohli has become only the second batsman after South Africa’s AB de Villiers to attain the 900-point mark concurrently in both formats and one among only five to have crossed 900 points in both forms of the game.
http://www.relianceiccrankings.com/ranking/odi/batting/

 

[SeamUp]

Kohli has become only the second batsman after South Africa’s AB de Villiers to attain the 900-point mark concurrently in both formats and one among only five to have crossed 900 points in both forms of the game.
http://www.relianceiccrankings.com/ranking/odi/batting/

Massive.

 

[OverratedSanity]

9 people voted for a filthy cheat.