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Will Kohli and Smith return to their former glory?

subshakerz

International Coach
Both have been in slumps since about 2020. Whereas they were averaging in the 70s in their peak, since then they are averaging in the 30s. Perhaps their peaks were unsustainable but the drop has been significant.

Neither seems to be suffering from significant technical issues. It appears mental more than anything. In fact, in flashes, they are still quite brilliant but seem to lack the hunger for longer hauls. IMO, Kohli seems to be taking the effect of captaincy strains, and I am not sure if he can boost his form until he is let free. Smith on the other hand has the opposite situation, with Labuschane steeling his thunder and less pressure on him to score, he is just not required to take charge like he used to.

Both Lara and Tendulkar experienced mid-career dips due to various reasons such as captaincy and injury but managed to peak again towards their end. Can the best of the modern generation do the same?
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Re: Smith ironically the best thing for him might actually be a whole stack of away tours where he can get away from suddenly-spicy Australian pitches, he seems to have a slight technical issue again with short of a length balls that seam away with extra bounce; more docile pitches from a bounce-pov will be easier for him to deal with in that case.
 

OverratedSanity

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Smith is in a minor slump and has still played the occasional really good knock. He doesn't look like a pale shadow of himself like Kohli does. Even Kohli's best knocks recently have been gritty totally out of character defensive efforts. Its not a great sign that he's close to getting back to his best. Without an amazing defensive game to fall back on he'll continue to put up poor numbers even if he shows real character like he did in the third test.

He needs some flat pitch bullying more than anything else. Get some of that attacking flair and confidence back , start playing the pull shot more, or he's done
 

Xuhaib

International Coach
Its just making me understand how bloody hard it is to sustain 8-10k test runs @ 50 and near abouts,
I think over time we will realise how lucky we were to watch some of the greatest batsmen ever all playing together in a similar time period.Sachin, BCL, Ponting, Kallis ,Dravid, Sanga are some of the greatest off all time and they all played in the same era hell the next tier of greats in that period Laxman,Hayden,Gilchrist,younis,inzi,moyo,laxman,mahela,sehwag,langer, KP,Chanderpau,cook I am sure there are few more I am missing but all these guys are head and shoulders above anyone barring the current fab 4 it was rally a golden generation of test batting and we have been spoiled by it.
 

subshakerz

International Coach
Its just making me understand how bloody hard it is to sustain 8-10k test runs @ 50 and near abouts,
I think over time we will realise how lucky we were to watch some of the greatest batsmen ever all playing together in a similar time period.Sachin, BCL, Ponting, Kallis ,Dravid, Sanga are some of the greatest off all time and they all played in the same era hell the next tier of greats in that period Laxman,Hayden,Gilchrist,younis,inzi,moyo,laxman,mahela,sehwag,langer, KP,Chanderpau,cook I am sure there are few more I am missing but all these guys are head and shoulders above anyone barring the current fab 4 it was rally a golden generation of test batting and we have been spoiled by it.
Back in the good ol' 90s, averaging 50 was considered bloody hard which is why so few did it. I remember those days of looking at the averages of Tendulkar and Waugh with awe.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Its just making me understand how bloody hard it is to sustain 8-10k test runs @ 50 and near abouts,
I think over time we will realise how lucky we were to watch some of the greatest batsmen ever all playing together in a similar time period.Sachin, BCL, Ponting, Kallis ,Dravid, Sanga are some of the greatest off all time and they all played in the same era hell the next tier of greats in that period Laxman,Hayden,Gilchrist,younis,inzi,moyo,laxman,mahela,sehwag,langer, KP,Chanderpau,cook I am sure there are few more I am missing but all these guys are head and shoulders above anyone barring the current fab 4 it was rally a golden generation of test batting and we have been spoiled by it.
90s yes but I think the 00s CEO pitches had a fair bit to do with those averages and aggregates.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
90s yes but I think the 00s CEO pitches had a fair bit to do with those averages and aggregates.
Yeah there's no way a lot of those blokes would have put up an average anywhere near 50 if they'd been faced with these bowlers and pitches.

Like god bless Mahela Jayawardene, but no one who watched his career would have backed him to score 10k+ runs in an era where most everyone has high quality seamers and the pitches are spicy.
 
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karan_fromthestands

State Captain
I think in Kohli's case there's just no respite, we have rank turners at home and unfamiliar conditions overseas. You want the cushion of easy home runs to feel a little assured as a batsman.

I'd prefer rank turners over everything else at home but the issue is that the pitches in domestic cricket aren't how they used to be. There was a period when we had plenty of proper turners, I remember travelling all the way to Baroda from Mumbai to watch domestic matches on the rank turner at Moti Bagh stadium. Most games would be over in 2 to 2 and a half days and there were some batsmen who had mastered batting on these square turners. I remember the Pathan brothers smashing the spinners on wickets that turned square. There was also a period when we had green tops in most domestic venues because of our away failures and the push to get batsmen ready for quality pace bowling. Harbhajan had raised this issue and later on we had much more balanced pitches(our batsmen/spinners had also started to fail in home conditions after getting accustomed to the green Ranji pitches, that was another reason why there was a switch to more balanced wickets).

I think turners at home are good but we need the same kind of decks in domestic games so that batsmen become really comfortable with them.

Talking about Smith, he is doing all right I feel, doesn't look totally out of place.
 

TheJediBrah

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Smith is being a perfectly fine Test batsman, he made a 90 a couple Tests ago and a 100 just a couple before that. It's just that where he has been for the last year and a half averaging ~40 is a big fall from averaging ~75 where he was.

Kohli however is actually looking like he shouldn't even be keeping his place in the team.
 

ankitj

Hall of Fame Member
Smith is a machine. I don't believe his slump can be very long. If it is a slump.

Kohli's decline is not terminal and I don't think he is doing enough to sort them out. Is he playing much first class cricket?
 

subshakerz

International Coach
Smith is being a perfectly fine Test batsman, he made a 90 a couple Tests ago and a 100 just a couple before that. It's just that where he has been for the last year and a half averaging ~40 is a big fall from averaging ~75 where he was.

Kohli however is actually looking like he shouldn't even be keeping his place in the team.
Kohli does score the odd quality knock here or there, but the aggro is missing.
 

_00_deathscar

International Debutant
Yeah there's no way a lot of those blokes would have put up an average anywhere near 50 if they'd been faced with these bowlers and pitches.

Like god bless Mahela Jayawardene, but no one who watched his career would have backed him to score 10k+ runs in an era where most everyone has high quality seamers and the pitches are spicy.
Yea imagine Mahela in this era right now for example.
 

Xuhaib

International Coach
90s yes but I think the 00s CEO pitches had a fair bit to do with those averages and aggregates.
I won't say you are wrong but despite the spicier tracks I do notice a drop in test batsmen quality infact more then SENA it's the test batting in subcont tests that have really fallen off the cliff. I see people talking about Mahela inflated stats but believe me even a 45 Yr old current Mahela would run circles around some today batsmen while batting on Asian pitches.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
I won't say you are wrong but despite the spicier tracks I do notice a drop in test batsmen quality infact more then SENA it's the test batting in subcont tests that have really fallen off the cliff. I see people talking about Mahela inflated stats but believe me even a 45 Yr old current Mahela would run circles around some today batsmen while batting on Asian pitches.
I think its a mix of the 2010s being the first generation of players who have had to train for T20s from their teenage, so the first T20 technique bred generation of players and the immensely bowling friendly pitches across the world as well as some of our unconscious eye-test bias.
 

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