2015 Final Test Rankings - Steve Smith #1, Williamson #2, Voges #11

[Captain_Cook]

so is Kohli the clear number 4 now for some reason?

Virat has had a tough time batting in India with only three centuries that last of which was in 2013. That immediately puts him at a disadvantage as Smith, Root and Kane all score very strongly at home. Also, question marks over his performance in England with Smith and KW tonning up at Lords. I think his knocks in Australia and South Africa were top notch though.

 

[honestbharani]

Think he will be fine. Said it before. He will be our Ponting. But yeah, right now KW, Root and Smith have more accomplishments. That is surreal given none of the other 3 were a regular for tests when Kohli became one. Says a lot about how good those 3 are more than anything negative about Virat IMO.

 

[vcs]

I know it's irrelevant to the Test discussion but Kohli's ODI godliness is hard to ignore when evaluating his quality. He was so unreal in that format before a slight dip in 2015. Already our 2nd greatest ODI batsman ever, and we've had some fine ones.

 

[Captain_Cook]

Think he will be fine. Said it before. He will be our Ponting.

How useful is a Ponting when Kohli will play nearly half his games in India? If he want to be the no. 1 test batsman, he has to have a good home record!

 

[mr_mister]

who's number 1?

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Smith, Root and Williamson just behind.

 

[Gob]

so is Kohli the clear number 4 now for some reason? It seems that Smith, KW and Root are being talked about way more often nowadays by this forum

Prob cos they make runs

 

[OverratedSanity]

Yep, he's clearly not been as good as them. Has touched some incredible peaks (Australia/SA tours) and abysmal lows (England). Just hasn't had a dominant run of form yet like the other three.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Btw, when was the last time the top 3 best in the world were such young batsmen (25-26 years of age) who'd only played 30-40 tests?

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Btw, when was the last time the top 3 best in the world were such young batsmen (25-26 years of age) who'd only played 30-40 tests?

At a guess probably Lara, Tendulkar and maybe one other sneaked in with them.

Found Jimmy Adams as the other in January 1995.

 

[91Jmay]

I'd rate Rahane ahead of Kohli at this point in their careers as well (In Tests).

 

[Howe_zat]

At a guess probably Lara, Tendulkar and maybe one other sneaked in with them.

Found Jimmy Adams as the other in January 1995.

yeah as has been mentioned before we skipped a generation where it should have been Clarke, De Villiers and such when they were 25, because the Tendulkar generation were still too good.

 

[burr]

Picked very young, had to take a lot of the batting responsibility in a weak batting lineup, and struggled with it initially. Also was thrust into the deep end at number 3 relatively early on. The (relatively few) weaknesses he had as a young batsman were magnified by these factors.

I wouldn't say he took a while to get going because he still scored centuries occasionally (including on debut), and he certainly looked the goods - was never at risk of being dropped or anything. Just the natural teething process for a young batsman was exposed. I don't know whether he's better for it now or if he would've matured anyway. I'm inclined to say the latter.

Thank you, I appreciate your answer.

I feel quite privileged to be watching these three bat at the moment.. There's nothing quite like watching a great at 25-odd. Let alone 3 of them.