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Steve Smith vs Sachin Tendulkar
- Thread starter PlayerComparisons
- Start date
subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
I was going to go with Smith but after this series against India, its SRT all the way
Yeah fair enoughI was going to go with Smith but after this series against India, its SRT all the way
Slifer
International Captain
Why? This is the one bad series he's had vs India. In India overall, he averages just shy of 50. One bad series does not a failure in India make.I was going to go with Smith but after this series against India, its SRT all the way
honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
This is why it is usually not such a great idea to rate in progress careers.
FWIW, as of today, it goes
Lara > Sachin > Smith > Ponting for me, among the batsmen I have seen. I do need to wonder if any of others in the fab 4 would have overtaken Ponting as well. Maybe Root?
FWIW, as of today, it goes
Lara > Sachin > Smith > Ponting for me, among the batsmen I have seen. I do need to wonder if any of others in the fab 4 would have overtaken Ponting as well. Maybe Root?
OverratedSanity
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I don't really see how anyone can have followed Smith's career and still rate Ponting over him at this stage. He's trumped him on basically everything, he's like Ponting on roids with clearly fewer weaknesses.
Ponting was a winner, a hard nosed Aussie
Smith is this odd looking weedy fellow
Blatant stereotypes aside, Ponting was just as dominant for a longer period of time and played more iconic innings. The decline phase of Ponting’s career was very sharp and we haven’t yet seen that with Smith
Smith is this odd looking weedy fellow
Blatant stereotypes aside, Ponting was just as dominant for a longer period of time and played more iconic innings. The decline phase of Ponting’s career was very sharp and we haven’t yet seen that with Smith
OverratedSanity
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Was he really though?
Spark
Global Moderator
I strongly disagree with this - if there's one area where Smith has him covered IMO, it's a plethora of jawdropping innings away from home in big series which Ponting never quite matched (mostly because he was merely middling in England and outright poor in India, which are the two biggest away Tests for any Aus cricketer)
If Smith had repeated his 2017 exploits on these pitches then he would be the clear frontrunner for TBAB, not least because Australia would have won the series.
In any case the point is not that Smith's achievements were better or worse than Ponting because they're from different eras. As with Steyn, the reason historic comparisons can be made wrt Smith is because he's head and shoulders above his contemporaries, which is the only truly fair comparison.
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Burgey
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Yeah that's one metric where I don't think a comparison between them is even close.
Smith's 2017 India and 2019 Ashes are the stuff of legend. 770 runs in four tests in 2019 is ****ing insane. Marnus averaged 50 odd in his four tests (one as a concussion sub tbf) but after him the next best Aus bat was Wade who averaged 30. Smith doesn't play that series Aus probably don't win a test.
Ponting played that epic 156 in 2005 to draw the third test which I think was his greatest knock - genuinely batting on a different pitch to everyone else against a eally good attack, but I can't really recall him scoring as many epic tons as Smith, especially series-defining away tons.
Smith's 2017 India and 2019 Ashes are the stuff of legend. 770 runs in four tests in 2019 is ****ing insane. Marnus averaged 50 odd in his four tests (one as a concussion sub tbf) but after him the next best Aus bat was Wade who averaged 30. Smith doesn't play that series Aus probably don't win a test.
Ponting played that epic 156 in 2005 to draw the third test which I think was his greatest knock - genuinely batting on a different pitch to everyone else against a eally good attack, but I can't really recall him scoring as many epic tons as Smith, especially series-defining away tons.
subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
I'm joking. He can afford an off series in India.
The_CricketUmpire
U19 Captain
Yeah I still rate Lara very very highly. Just oozed talent...natural talent. When he was on....he would take any bowling attack apart.
Fuller Pilch
Hall of Fame Member
Labu: 9 100s in Australia; 1 away from Australia
The_CricketUmpire
U19 Captain
There's lots of ways to assess batsman. One way could be this - average runs scored per series.
Smith so far has played in 30 Test series and scored 8,792 runs and the average number of Tests per series has been 3.20. He has averaged 293.06 runs per series.
Tendulkar played in 74 Test series throughout his career and scored 15,921 runs and the average number of Tests per series was 2.74. He averaged 215.14 runs per series.
As I said, that's only one way of assessing a batsman. We all talk about (and rightly so) a batsman's batting average per innings but I think it's also good to look at a batsman's average per series for runs scored - it just adds a different and another element to the topic ?
Another awesome batsman that comes to mind is Brian Lara - he played in 39 Test series in his career and the average number of Tests per series was 3.35. He scored 11,953 runs. He averaged 306.48 runs per series.
Smith so far has played in 30 Test series and scored 8,792 runs and the average number of Tests per series has been 3.20. He has averaged 293.06 runs per series.
Tendulkar played in 74 Test series throughout his career and scored 15,921 runs and the average number of Tests per series was 2.74. He averaged 215.14 runs per series.
As I said, that's only one way of assessing a batsman. We all talk about (and rightly so) a batsman's batting average per innings but I think it's also good to look at a batsman's average per series for runs scored - it just adds a different and another element to the topic ?
Another awesome batsman that comes to mind is Brian Lara - he played in 39 Test series in his career and the average number of Tests per series was 3.35. He scored 11,953 runs. He averaged 306.48 runs per series.
ataraxia
International Coach
You do realise this measure has precisely zero value, right?
Spark
Global Moderator
I think he's trying to make a measure of whether a batsman had a dominant series or not but yeah that's literally just runs per test * tests per series, which mostly just tells you that Australia plays long series.
Standardised average is still the king if you want to start playing weighting games anyway. Stop trying to get horrible horrible people elected to the NSW Parliament @Prince EWS and give us a database update.
Standardised average is still the king if you want to start playing weighting games anyway. Stop trying to get horrible horrible people elected to the NSW Parliament @Prince EWS and give us a database update.
The_CricketUmpire
U19 Captain
Yes that was my point.
Apologies to those who didn't see much value in it. I was only looking at it from a different angle that's all.
centurymaker
Cricketer Of The Year
South Africa have been better than England in the last 30 years. And playing South Africa has been just as iconic. Ponting was really really good against them iirc, Smith not so. This kind of balances the scale a little bit. Not to mention Ponting was really dominant in ODIs too which amount to something as well. (Top legends have to be able to adapt to different formats and succeed).