Steve Smith vs Sachin Tendulkar

[OverratedSanity]

Smith already had an argument for that best after Bradman title after his 2019 ashes even if he didn't do anything after that.

 

[honestbharani]

Smith already had an argument for that best after Bradman title after his 2019 ashes even if he didn't do anything after that.

Nah.. body of work matters IMO. Anyways, I still hold Sachin better but right now, its basically only coz Smith has not finished his career.

 

[Adorable Asshole]

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.

What does TBAB? The Best Australian Bat? The Best After Bradman?

 

[Spark]

What does TBAB? The Best Australian Bat? The Best After Bradman?

The Best After/Apart from Bradman

 

[honestbharani]

What does TBAB? The Best Australian Bat? The Best After Bradman?

The Best At Bazball

 

[Chrish]

Pretty big praise from Virat.

 

[CartyDurham]

Tendulkar by about a mile

 

[Silver Line]

Smith has been averaging 65.14 since 2014. I highlight this year because thats when he eliminated the bowling all rounder tag from himself and got the respect to move up and everyone started taking him as a serious bat.

all this talk about Tendulkar, but half his career came in the easiest test era for batting. Even in his decade of prime his peak does not touch smith’s.

moreover sachin has alot of runs against bangladesh and zimbabwe in comparision to smith (yet doesnt touch smiths average with it).

stand-alone knocks of smith’s are more highly rated too.

with all due respect sachin was not the best test batsman from his fab 4 or 5 lot either. It was Kallis. Kallis’s test batsmanship can compete against Smith’s

 

[OverratedSanity]

Smith has been averaging 65.14 since 2014. I highlight this year because thats when he eliminated the bowling all rounder tag from himself and got the respect to move up and everyone started taking him as a serious bat.

all this talk about Tendulkar, but half his career came in the easiest test era for batting. Even in his decade of prime his peak does not touch smith’s.

moreover sachin has alot of runs against bangladesh and zimbabwe in comparision to smith (yet doesnt touch smiths average with it).

stand-alone knocks of smith’s are more highly rated too.

with all due respect sachin was not the best test batsman from his fab 4 or 5 lot either. It was Kallis. Kallis’s test batsmanship can compete against Smith’s

Smith being better than Sachin isn't a hot take. I actually think he has a very strong case now.

Kallis though. Lmao no.

 

[Adorable Asshole]

with all due respect sachin was not the best test batsman from his fab 4 or 5 lot either. It was Kallis. Kallis’s test batsmanship can compete against Smith’s

Lol. Even Kallis won't say such a thing.

 

[Silver Line]

Smith being better than Sachin isn't a hot take. I actually think he has a very strong case now.

Kallis though. Lmao no.

Sachin’s all format batting and billion people hype is overshadowing Kallis’s value in people’s head.
kallis when he finally got a hold of his bat, from 1999-2012 played 216 innings and amassed 11K+ runs at an average of 61 with 42 centuries.

kallis is to his fab lot what smith is to his. They both get shadowed by sachin and virat because of india’s mass cricket crazy population.
And Kallis even more because internet and stats digging was not so profiecient in the past, which smith has the favour for in his era to establish his position further

 

[OverratedSanity]

Sachin’s all format batting and billion people hype is overshadowing Kallis’s value in people’s head.
kallis when he finally got a hold of his bat, from 1999-2012 played 216 innings and amassed 11K+ runs at an average of 61 with 42 centuries.

kallis is to his fab lot what smith is to his. They both get shadowed by sachin and virat because of india’s mass cricket crazy population.
And Kallis even more because internet and stats digging was not so profiecient in the past, which smith has the favour for in his era to establish his position further

Laughable to compare Sachin to Kohli. Even Indians don't consider Kohli better than Smith in tests,

 

[ankitj]

kallis when he finally got a hold of his bat, from 1999-2012 played 216 innings and amassed 11K+ runs at an average of 61 with 42 centuries

What were you saying about Tendulkar playing half his career in the easiest batting era?

 

[Silver Line]

Laughable to compare Sachin to Kohli. Even Indians don't consider Kohli better than Smith in tests,

if you could comprehend a bit better mate, im comparing about sachin and kohli’s cricketing fame/hype in comparison to their peers.

Thanks to modern digitalism which exists now to dig into stats like never before. A platform in every common fans hand. This causes more critics and better evaluation for players playing now.
Word to mouth or eye test was more common back then, and people will always buy into hype. Because sachin was a great all format batsman and not a rubbish one, it was easy for the narrative of sachin being the best test bat to stick around with it.

 

[Silver Line]

What were you saying about Tendulkar playing half his career in the easiest batting era?

2000-2010 decade features the highest batting average among every other cricketing decade starting from 1940s, while Smith’s (especially 2020’s) comes in at one of the lowest batting average aggregates.

 

[ankitj]

2000-2010 decade features the highest batting average among every other cricketing decade starting from 1940s, while Smith’s (especially 2020’s) comes in at one of the lowest batting average aggregates.

Which has no impact on assessment of Kallis I can see.

 

[Burgey]

2000-2010 decade features the highest batting average among every other cricketing decade starting from 1940s, while Smith’s (especially 2020’s) comes in at one of the lowest batting average aggregates.

Yeah but you then highlighted Kallis' peak which, you know, was basically that entire period.

 

[OverratedSanity]

if you could comprehend a bit better mate, im comparing about sachin and kohli’s cricketing fame/hype in comparison to their peers.

Thanks to modern digitalism which exists now to dig into stats like never before. A platform in every common fans hand. This causes more critics and better evaluation for players playing now.
Word to mouth or eye test was more common back then, and people will always buy into hype. Because sachin was a great all format batsman and not a rubbish one, it was easy for the narrative of sachin being the best test bat to stick around with it.

Tendulkar has better test stats than Kallis to anyone who can comprehend them beyond surface level averages. To say that the eye test (which by the way is actually important) is the only thing that Tendulkar has over Kallis and that he loses the statistical battle is false.

 

[OverratedSanity]

kallis when he finally got a hold of his bat, from 1999-2012 played 216 innings and amassed 11K+ runs at an average of 61 with 42 centuries.

Sachin when he moved past puberty, from 1993-2011 played 259 innings, amassed 13k+ runs at an average of 60 with 47 centuries

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo.com

stats.espncricinfo.com

 

[Burgey]

Look, Kallis is a very fine player and an all-timer in his own right, but Tendulkar is head and shoulders a better batsman than him. And there's no shame on Kallis in me saying that.