The last few years have seen cricketing stalwarts like Jacques Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid hanging their boots from the game. Throughout the last decade, these batting greats had a fierce rivalry to claim the batting supremacy. The competition made them perform brilliantly and fans were lucky to witness such a great era. Their retirement left a huge void in the cricketing world but fans are really lucky to witness some batsmen who have the potential to replace the legends.
The last couple of years has seen four batsmen: Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, Steve Smith and Joe Root taking the centre stage. Arguably, the biggest cricketing stars of this generation, these four batsmen are earmarked for greatness. One can get an idea of their domination from the fact that Steve Smith, Joe Root and Kane Willamson are first, second and third in Test rankings. On the other hand, Kohli, who is 16th in Test ranking, is setting the world on fire in limited-overs cricket but started slowly in Test cricket. However, he has made giant strides in Test in the last couple of years. Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli are already the captains of their national sides and Joe Root is seen as the future captain of England.
The four made their Test debut around the same time (between 2010 and 2012) and have played roughly the same number of Tests (Williamson 53, Root 46, Kohli 46 and Smith 44). The whole cricketing world is divided over the debate to decide the best among the four and the debate is only going to get fierce as they are consistently performing well.
So here we are presenting the batting stats of the big four in Test cricket:
Number of innings:
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson is leading this list. The Kiwi batsman has so far played 97 innings in 53 Tests followed by Joe Root who has played 84 innings. Steve Smith is third on the list with 81 Tests while Indian skipper Virat Kohli has played the least number of innings among the four with 76 innings to his name.
Number of Most runs:
With 4493 runs, Williamson is leading this list too. He is followed by Australian skipper Steve Smith who has scored 4099 runs so far. Joe Root is third on the list with 4005 runs while Kohli is last in the last with 3272 runs.
Number of centuries:
Steve Smith leads this list with 15 centuries to his name and is closely followed by Williamson who has scored 14 centuries. With 12 centuries, Kohli is third in the last and Root is fourth with 10.
Average:
While Root, Williamson, and Smith have an average of over 50, Kohli’s average is just over 44. Smith is leading this list with an average of 58.55 followed by Williamson’s 51.05 and Root’s 54.86.
Average in Asia:
England batting sensation Root is leading this list by a good margin. In Asia, he has scored 380 runs at an impressive average of 63.33. He is followed by Williamson who has scored 1075 runs at an average of 48.86. Kohli has scored the most runs in Asia. He has scored 1315 runs at an average of 42.21. Last on the list is Smith who has scored 582 runs at an average of 41.57.
Home vs away stats:
Steve Smith has the best average at home (67.30) and away (57.63). Kohli is the only one to have a better away batting average.
Best and worst average against a particular team:
Smith is leading the list by a huge margin with an average of 165.66. Second in the list is Root who has scored at an average of 101.83 against India.Third in the list is Williamson who has scored at an average of 91.88 against Sri Lanka followed by Kohli who averages 72.50 against New Zealand.