The legacy of Steve Smith

[Sunil1z]

Guy is extremely hard to dismiss.It is so annoying.

 

[ashley bach]

Just continues to roll on...relentlessly.

 

[subshakerz]

My all time side tends to have a rotation of various awesome players in the middle order. I've been putting Viv at #5 for the fun of it but Smith looks very solid there.

Hobbs
Gavaskar
Bradman
Tendulkar
Smith
Sobers
Gilchrist
Imran
Hadlee
Marshall
Warne

ATG XIs become more and more OP over time as we get more candidates for them.

No Viv in an ATG XI breaks my heart but I cant fault your selections really.

 

[Patience and Accuracy+Gut]

Would put Smith at no.3 among ATGs if he retires tomorrow,ahead of Sobers and Sachin and behind Hobbs.
If he wins series in India and dominates the series,then he would surpass Hobbs and be second to Bradman in my books.

 

[Slifer]

Would put Smith at no.3 among ATGs if he retires tomorrow,ahead of Sobers and Sachin and behind Hobbs.
If he wins series in India and dominates the series,then he would surpass Hobbs and be second to Bradman in my books.

What if he dominates like last time but Australia loses or draws?

 

[subshakerz]

Would put Smith at no.3 among ATGs if he retires tomorrow,ahead of Sobers and Sachin and behind Hobbs.
If he wins series in India and dominates the series,then he would surpass Hobbs and be second to Bradman in my books.

He already did that in 2017 against peak Ashwin Jadeja, so he has nothing to prove there. One series shouldnt shift his position.

However, a good 2023, which means he ends the year with 100 tests at a 60 plus average should be enough to solidify his position.

 

[Patience and Accuracy+Gut]

What if he dominates like last time but Australia loses or draws?

There is always more recency bias and I would put him #2 for that time being.

But I have Hobbs/Smith/Sobers at almost even.Think Sobers was more talented,Hobbs Greater and More complete batsman and Smith is surely the better batsman.Depends on how you define Greatness.

 

[Slifer]

He already did that in 2017 against peak Ashwin Jadeja, so he has nothing to prove there. One series shouldnt shift his position.

However, a good 2023, which means he ends the year with 100 tests at a 60 plus average should be enough to solidify his position.

Especially since he'd have played against the three best bowling attacks outside his own: RSA now then India and England.

 

[Slifer]

There is always more recency bias and I would put him #2 for that time being.

But I have Hobbs/Smith/Sobers at almost even.Think Sobers was more talented,Hobbs Greater and More complete batsman and Smith is surely the better batsman.Depends on how you define Greatness.

Greatness for me starts with stats. Smith averages 60 home and away and 61 overall. Then consistency, Smith scores a hundred every 3 tests and averages practically 45 plus vs everyone, except for Bangladesh. And no one with a functioning brain will hold two tests against him. Next is how he's done vs great attacks. He's made runs in India, he made runs in RSA vs Steyn, Philander and Morkel. He's made runs vs Broad and Anderson in England. He's made runs vs strong NZ attacks etc. Then there are the monster series. Smith has a few 700 runs + series. He's well ahead of his contemporaries and still going strong.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

He's probably the best batsman to date called 'Steve'.

 

[Daemon]

30 tons at a 60+ average. Insanity.

yeah but what's his average against Bangladesh

 

[Prince EWS]

yeah but what's his average against Bangladesh

wtf I love analysis by checklist now

 

[honestbharani]

My all time side tends to have a rotation of various awesome players in the middle order. I've been putting Viv at #5 for the fun of it but Smith looks very solid there.

Hobbs
Gavaskar
Bradman
Tendulkar
Smith
Sobers
Gilchrist
Imran
Hadlee
Marshall
Warne

ATG XIs become more and more OP over time as we get more candidates for them.

Without even getting into Lara V Sachin, I think that side will actually be better with Lara there at 4. The style of batsmen will be very complementary to each other all through till 9/10. You probably can replace Imran/Hadlee with more of a pace merchant too.

 

[Chrish]

Xi without Viv can’t be taken seriously..

 

[Socerer 01]

Viv’s a giant in odi but tests.. it isn’t controversial to leave him out in an atg xi

 

[The Sean]

Sachin's avg was 58 when he scored 30th century.
Only 4 other batsmen ( among top 50 run scorers of the period ) managed to achieve 50 avg.
2nd highest avg was 52+ ( 5 points less than Sachin )

Smith averages about 61
7 other batsmen averaged above 50
4 of them managed 55+
3 of them above 59

And Sachin played for another 10 years.

At some point I'd love people to realise that cricketing praise isn't a zero sum game, and that acknowledging the greatness of one player doesn't mean you're taking kudos away from another.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I also think the ban and Covid helped maintain his average if you can call it that - he looked truly terrible for a while there.

The opposite

 

[The_CricketUmpire]

My all time side tends to have a rotation of various awesome players in the middle order. I've been putting Viv at #5 for the fun of it but Smith looks very solid there.

Hobbs
Gavaskar
Bradman
Tendulkar
Smith
Sobers
Gilchrist
Imran
Hadlee
Marshall
Warne

ATG XIs become more and more OP over time as we get more candidates for them.

This is a very very good team and one that probably could change over time and there is lots of players that could be in the side too. So many great players.

I reckon Lara gets into my team.
Brendan Turner I actually rate Lara ahead of Tendulkar for this reason:

Lara scored 34 Test centuries - 19 of them were 150+...thats a staggering 55.8%...so Lara could score big...very big.....and of those nineteen 150+ scores - 7 of them were double hundreds, one triple hundred and one 400, so 9 out of 19 were 200+ which is 36.8%

Tendulkar scored 51 Test centuries, 20 of them were at 150 or more....39.2%....of those twenty 150+ scores....6 of them were 200+...so 6 out of 20 is 30.0%.

Both outstanding players, all time greats, but in my opinion I have Lara ahead of Tendulkar, but not by much. But thats for another discussion.

Both outstanding players, all time greats, but in my opinion I have Lara ahead of Tendulkar, but not by much. But thats for another discussion.

But yeah it shows how many wonderful players have played Test cricket over time ??

 

[Chrish]

If anything Viv would be one of the openers.. He did alright against DK and Tommo albeit small sample.

He is too good to be left out..

 

[Burgey]

How’s this interview with Smith rn? Spoke about how he moved back to off stump vs Jansen yesterday “because I decided once I was out there I wasn’t going to be challenged on the outside edge, and I got a cover drive away then a pull shot so that worked”

“Yeah I wanted to work on my horizontal bat shots against the spinners once I got to 100, to practice things for India.”

“you were going to work on your game in the middle of a Test match innings?”

“Yeah we don’t get to play many practice matches so, no disrespect intended, but I thought with the short boundary there I could work on that, but then I lost concentration and chipped one back…”