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Who Is The Best Batsman In The World Today?
Purists will tell you that modern Cricket has reached a point where it is almost impossible to compare between the world’s greatest batsmen to narrow down on one player and call him the best amongst all and it is true. Cricket is at its highest level at the moment with so much changing in the new formats. In modern days, Players are playing cricket throughout the year in one league or other excluding the International duties. There are so many good players in so many different leagues that it is extremely hard to narrow down the best of the lot. It’s easy identify that the top 5 batsmen in the world or the top 5 bowlers in the world are also the most fittest players in the world, because you play so much in a year it is hard to keep up with the momentum both physically and mentally.
Today we are going to choose from the “fab four” batsmen in the world and compare them across all formats, to find out what many experts have failed to comment on. They have been touted as the best of all in world cricket for a long time, so we think this was due.
We are going to find out the best batsman across all formats, someone who has been consistent throughout their International career.
1. Virat Kohli –
Kohli has the second highest number of centuries and the highest number of centuries in run-chases in the world in one day Internationals. Kohli also holds the world record for being the fastest cricketer to cross 10,000 and 11,000 runs in ODI cricket, surpassing the milestones in 205 and 222 innings, respectively. Since his debut against Sri Lanka in August 2008, Kohli has played 415 international matches.
Test-
Virat Kohli made his Test debut against West Indies at Sabrina Park, 20th June 2011. Since then, Virat Kohli has scored 7240 runs from 86 matches which includes 27 hundreds, 7 double-hundreds and 22 fifties. His batting average in Tests is 53.63 and his highest score in a match is 254.
ODI –
Since Kohli made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka at Rangiri Dambulla International stadium on 18th August 2008, he has played in 248 matches and has 11876 runs at an average of 59.34. He has 43 hundreds and 58 fifties under his name.
T20 –
Kohli made his T20 debut against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on 12th June 2010. He has scored 2794 runs from the 81 matches he has played at an average of 50.8. He also has 24 fifties to his name in the shortest format.
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2. Steve Smith
The former Captain of the Australian team has been consistently rated as the best test batsman in the world, according to the ICC rankings. He has also been called the “best since Bradman” because of his typically high batting average in Tests. Although he was initially selected for Australia as a right-arm leg spinner, Smith eventually started playing primarily as a batsman. Martin Crowe rated Smith as one of the young Fab Four of Test cricket along with Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Kane Williamson. Smith reached a Test batting rating of 947 on 30 December 2017, the second-highest of all time, only behind Don Bradman's 961.Since his debut on 5th February 2010 against Pakistan in a T20 match, the former Australian captain has played 237 international matches:
Test –
Smith has played 73 test matches since his debut on 13th July 2010 against Pakistan and has scored 7,227 runs at an insane average of 62.84. He has 26 hundreds, 3 double hundreds and 29 fifties under his belt. His top score in Test cricket is 239.
ODI –
Smith made his debut on 19th February 2010 against West Indies, since then he has scored 4, 162 runs from 125 matches at an average of 42.46, which includes 9 hundreds and 25 fifties. Smith’s highest score in one day internationals is 164.
T20 –
Since his debut on 5th February 2010 against Pakistan, smith has scored 681 runs from 39 matches. He has a top score of 90 and has 4 fifties to his name. His batting average in the shortest format stands at 29.60.
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3. Kane Williamson
Kane made his One-Day International debut against India on 10 August 2010. He scored his maiden ODI century against Bangladesh on 14 October 2010 in Dhaka and hence became the youngest batsman to score a century in New Zealand's cricket history. Following his performance during the tour of Bangladesh Williamson was selected in the New Zealand Test squad for the tour of India that followed despite of his team suffering a whitewash in the series.
Test-
Kane made his Test debut against India at Hagley Oval on 29th Feb 2020. He has played in 80 test matches so far and has scored 6476 runs at an average of 50.99. He has 21 hundreds, 2 double hundreds and 32 fifties under his belt. His highest score in a match is 242 and he has a strike rate of 51.63.
ODI-
Kane has played in 151 ODI matches since his debut on 4th November 2010 against India at the Sardar Patel stadium. He has scored 6174 runs which includes 13 hundreds and 39 fifties. He averages at 47.49 and has a strike rate of 81.76 and his highest score in a match is 148. The interesting thing is he started his ODI career with two consecutive ducks but after that he has not looked back.
T20-
Kane made his debut against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on 15th October 2011. He has scored 1665 runs from 60 matches which includes 11 fifties and has a strike rate of 125.
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4. Joe Root
Joe Root was born to a family with a rich cricketing background. Hailing from a family of County Cricket players, Root always had the pressure of making his mark in Cricket. Root started initially as a right-handed opening batsman and an occasional off-spinner and then moved to the middle order where he has played most of his cricket. Since making his debut in 2012 to winning the World Cup and Joe Root has come a long way in his cricketing career. He is also part of the Fab Four of Test cricket along with Kane Williamson, Steve Smith and Virat Kohli, and is known for his Orthodox batting technique and consistency.
Test -
Since his debut against India on 13th December 2012, Root has played in 92 test matches from which he has scored 7599 runs which includes 17 hundreds and 3 double hundreds and 48 fifties. Root has a test average of 48.09 and his highest score in a test match is 254.
ODI –
Root made his one-day International debut against India at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium on 11th Jan 2013. Since then, he has played 145 matches from which he scored 5922 at an average 51.05. He has 16 hundreds and 33 fifties under his belt.
T20 –
Root made his T20 debut against India on 22nd December 2012 at the Wankhede stadium. He has played 32 matches so far and has scored 893 runs which includes 5 fifties. Root’s average in the shortest format of the game is 35.72.
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Conclusion
If we talk about tests, Joe root has the highest number of runs but he has also played the most number of matches from the others. Steve Smith has the best test average of 62.84 but he has also played lesser matches than the others. Virat is probably a couple of double- hundreds behind Joe Root and his average might be lesser than that of Smith, but he is the most consistent batsman of all of them with most number of hundreds and double-hundreds. Having said that Virat is also just a point behind Smith on the ICC Test batsmen rankings.
If we talk about ODIs and T20, Virat is by-far leading the camp with the highest number of runs, most hundreds, and the best batting averages. So, probably we it would be safe to say that Virat Kohli is the Undefeated King of batting in modern-day Cricket.
