Skip to main content

Quick singles: The incredible Mr. Smith

While not quite being an extraterrestrial computer, bowlers around the world will want to claim that Steve Smith is not quite human the way he's gone about his run scoring in the last four years since he made his comeback to the Australian Test side. Over 48 matches (and 88 innings) he has averaged 64.85 with 19 hundreds and another 18 fifty plus scores. And (unlike some modern "greats") he's scored these runs everywhere he's played as an away (incl UAE) average of 58.22 and hundreds in every country except the UAE show. Along the way he has become the fastest to 5000 runs among his contemporaries (unless Pujara or du Plessis achieve the possible but highly unlikely feats of scoring 1259/2642 runs in their next 18/36 innings respectively). He's also got comfortably the second highest average ever of batsmen with more than 5000 runs, ahead of the likes of Sobers, Hobbs, and Hammond. And as captain, he's miles ahead of anyone (bar Bradman of course) who has scored more than 2000 runs as skipper. Not bad for a man who made his debut as a leg-spinning allrounder batting at #8.

What give me additional personal pleasure is that three years back, I picked him as one of my stars for the future (and as future Aussie skipper). Given that he averaged just 38.45 at that stage with four hundreds after 18 matches, that was a pretty good pick!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Et tu?

As a single sport website, I think Cricinfo has brought about a revolution and the fact that they were bought by ESPN is testament to how highly valued they've become. Their editing and approach to articles/opinion has been refreshing to say the least and even though they seem to have had a lot of editorial staff movement they've usually maintained very high standards. Off late though, both in their headline styles as well as in actual content, there seems to be an occasional slippage of standards and an inching towards the modern media sensationalism which is a bit of a pity. This piece  by Siddharth Monga is a classic example. Granted that the last two press conferences by Dhoni and Sehwag  indicated clearly that the captain and his deputy did not agree on this aspect of selection but "discord", "dissent", "public sniping" feels rather presumptuous and heavy handed. Yes, it is a team sport but there is no reason why everyone on the team needs ...
1 comment
Read more

England in the 90s revisited and oh, for backup bowlers!

So its come to this finally. As the cliche goes, the wheel comes full circle. Australian selection policies these days resemble that of England from the 1990s :-) Took a quick look at the last two years and over 37 Test matches since 1 Jan 2008, Australia have used 36 different players. That's an average of roughly one additional/new player every 1.48 matches! Talk about instability. When compared to India (a new player every 1.94 matches), South Africa (2.14), England (2.24) it shows how things have changed in the last two years with regards to the power balance in Test cricket. What the overall stat also does not show directly is that most of these new players have been bowlers. With the exception of replacing Hayden and Symonds the batting line-up has been quite stable but the bowling has been the exact opposite. Indian spinners like Amit Mishra, Piyush Chawla, Ashwin, and Murali Kartik must be ruing the fact that they don't have an Australian passport! The latter in parti...
2 comments
Read more

World T20 preview: surprises in store again?

In its short history of seven years (and four editions), the World T20 has thrown up many surprises. Four different winners (each of them unfancied at the start of the tournament), with even England winning silverware. Australia have made just one final and have yet to win (but then it took them till the fifth edition to win the Champions Trophy too). Possibly the most surprising fact about the World T20 is that we're into the fifth edition but India are yet to host one. Given that their victory in the inaugural tournament led to the IPL and the face of the modern game changing, I would have expected a 1987 like scenario with the BCCI doing its utmost to host the championships but that has not been the case. Maybe the IPL brand needs protection in their opinion? The latest version in Bangladesh will throw up plenty more to add to the list of the surprises I'm sure. Its been a pleasant change already to have a proper qualifying tournament between the lower ranked teams  as opp...
Post a Comment
Read more