The tier below the fab 4

[Jono]

When AB retires Cricket Australia should rename the Allan Border medal as the AB de Villiers medal imo

 

[Burgey]

That'd be pretty ****ing stupid.

 

[Burgey]

What they should do is rename the Polly Umrigar Award the Allan Border Award because Polly is a girl's name, and if it wasn't for The One True AB declaring twice, Indian cricket would have missed out on providing the world with the one special moment in its history, the Madras Tied Test.

 

[Adders]

I don't necessarily think the "fab four" are the best four batsmen in the world. There are a bunch of blokes I rate ahead of Kohli at the moment if we're talking Tests only, and I find it hard to split de Villiers from Smith, Williamson and Root.

Yeah this so called Fab 4 I've always taken to be the best young talent going around, not necessarily that they are "the best" Personally I'd still take Amla and Younis as first picks in the batting lineup before any of the 4.

 

[listento_me]

I don't necessarily think the "fab four" are the best four batsmen in the world. There are a bunch of blokes I rate ahead of Kohli at the moment if we're talking Tests only, and I find it hard to split de Villiers from Smith, Williamson and Root.

If we're purely looking at test cricket, then I agree, with AB, Amla, Root and Williamson all above Kohli but like OP said, he's excluding the established AB and Amla for the sake of this analysis. I can go along with that. However, that means we should exclude the exceedingly great Younis Khan and the ever resilient Misbah/Cook.

If the fab 4 is indeed Root/Smith/Kohli/Williamson, with the exclusions above, then the next best batsman would have to be someone like an Asad Shafiq or Warner or Voges even.

 

[NZTailender]

The point is they're the young up and comers stepping into the limelight and are the next ABdV, Khan, Cook, Taylor, Watson, Sibanda, Dwayne Smith etc.

 

[Shri]

Kohli's up there mostly because he did ok in Aus shortly after Eng's collective assholes puckered up at the sight of Mitchell Johnson.

 

[Flem274*]

I think this fab 4 trend is the perfect example of why historical cricketing narratives are full of **** tbh. In 30 years Kane, Smith, Kohli and Root will be getting masturbated over and the likes of Younis Khan, Hashim Amla, Alastair Cook etc will be relatively forgotten. Four names have been picked and the media/fans have run with it.

 

[Shri]

Amla won't be forgotten. The other two will be because they are boring ****s.

 

[NZTailender]

Amla won't be forgotten. The other two will be because they are boring ****s.

 

[Xuhaib]

Younis khan is not boring he is arguably the best clutch batsman of his generation

 

[Gob]

Warner will need to improve a fair bit outside Australia. He looks useless in England and when it's spinning. His batting in SL was completely embarrassing. If they had any halfway decent openers playing FC cricket in Australia atm he would have had his papers marked never to play again, It was that bad.

bit harsh on Gravey train right there hit half centuries in all five tests IIRC. But yeah he needs to deliver more outside of Aust otherwise his legacy will be reduced a great deal. Still got plenty of time though

 

[TheJediBrah]

Kohli's up there mostly because he did ok in Aus shortly after Eng's collective assholes puckered up at the sight of Mitchell Johnson.

Not at all, maybe as a result of people's misunderstanding

The wickets played on during India's tour in 2014 were the slowest, flattest I've ever seen in Australia. Johnson got nothing out of them, and on top of that he wasn't in anywhere near as good bowling form as he was against England

 

[weldone]

As I mentioend weeks ago, Rahane is so good he not only would walk into Australias' team, he'd be the batting coach.

He'd be Australia's 2nd best batsman ever after his retirement, too.

Rahane is India's Warner. So much undeserved hype.

I thought Warner uses Rahane's bed as his bat.

 

[Shri]

Not at all, maybe as a result of people's misunderstanding

The wickets played on during India's tour in 2014 were the slowest, flattest I've ever seen in Australia. Johnson got nothing out of them, and on top of that he wasn't in anywhere near as good bowling form as he was against England

You are telling me he didn't do ok?

 

[TheJediBrah]

You are telling me he didn't do ok?

No I was just pointing out that comparing it to England's tour the year before and Johnson as a bowler in particular is very flawed.

 

[Adders]

Yeah for once I agree with Brah here. I was at the MCG day 3 (IIRC) when Kohli and Rahane pilled on the runs.......Don't think Mitch clocked over 140mph for the whole day. Very different bowler to the one I saw in Adelaide the year before sending down 150mph thunderbolts breaking toes and sending stumps flying.

 

[Burgey]

The Prince's death hit Johnson pretty hard by all reports. He admitted he never felt the same about sconing blokes again.

That last Indian tour here was a weird-feeling summer. The whole season was just effected by what happened in that Shield game. Cricket really didn't seem that important to a lot of blokes, and understandably so

 

[Jono]

Yeah for once I agree with Brah here. I was at the MCG day 3 (IIRC) when Kohli and Rahane pilled on the runs.......Don't think Mitch clocked over 140mph for the whole day. Very different bowler to the one I saw in Adelaide the year before sending down 150mph thunderbolts breaking toes and sending stumps flying.

I was there too. What a glorious day it was when Rahane just flicked a switch and the little midget started hooking and pulling 4s at will.

Have said many times that the conversation between Kohli and Rahane would have been so good before that moment. Kohli just telling Rahane to launch and Rahane just no doubt doing a head bobble in response and then just quietly cutting sick. Wag

Agreed pitches were flatter that summer but that doesn't make what Kohli and Smith achieved that summer not amazing. Was still great batting all series by them.

 

[OverratedSanity]

That partnership was so much fun to watch. Rahane