Checking in on greatness

Hello and welcome back to my blog – how long has it been!?

A World Cup is as good of a time as any to take up the pen again, but truth be told it is just the first time I’ve managed to combine my favourite mix of night-time relaxation: cold winter evening, live cricket, scotch and something about which I am inspired to write.  My return topic is really a sequel, long awaited like I am sure, to my July 2016 (and last) entry about Kohli, Smith, Root and Williamson.  I am pleased to find, as with the glass of Glendronach to my right, it aged pretty well…

“NOTE: although Kohli’s mastery of test cricket has not quite blossomed the same as the other 3, his mastery of limited-overs cricket is so far ahead that I believe he warrants inclusion.”

…well yes, I completely agree with myself on that one – there are few better feelings than vindication.  Anyway, with these four modern masters of batting in the four best teams at the current World Cup let us see how they’ve progressed.

In 2016 I tried to make the point that while they were all established as the top batters in the world, they all brought something different to that title and would face equally different challenges in the near future; namely leadership.  After almost three years I can say I was not wrong, but first to the stats!

Virat Kohli

	Year	Match	Runs	Ave.	100s
Tests	2016	42	3194	46.29	12
	2019	77	6613	53.76	25
ODIs	2019	229	10943	59.47	41

Steve Smith

	Year	Match	Runs	Ave.	100s
Tests	2016	41	3852	60.18	14
	2019	64	6199	61.37	23
ODIs	2019	112	3601	41.87	8

Joe Root

	Year	Match	Runs	Ave.	100s
Tests	2016	44	3804	55.13	10
	2019	80	6685	49.51	16
ODIs	2019	135	5479	50.73	15

Kane Williamson

	Year	Match	Runs	Ave.	100s
Tests	2016	48	4037	49.23	13
	2019	72	6139	53.38	20
ODIs	2019	142	5673	46.50	11

Kohli is the best batsman in the world at present and it is hard to get past that fact.  In the last three years he has increased his test average from good to great and scored 13 (many huge) centuries at home and abroad.  Last time I wondered whether he could emulate Tendulkar’s hunger for runs, and that has really been the key.  He has managed to transfer his ODI run-machine style to the longer format of the game, taken up the captaincy of a rampant Indian team that is winning overseas again, and only increased his run-scoring.  However, the element I admit that I was slow to appreciate is his hard work and resolve – it is not just talent or flat pitches - he succeeds based on an insane work ethic, the same with which he is also moulding his team.  At 30/31 he should still have another 4-5 years of great batting in him, but we already expect that – instead I cannot wait to see to what heights he can march his team.

Steve Smith is a different story altogether because while he has also taken his batting to new levels in test cricket, his leadership tenure was and should ever be marked as one of abject failure.  Smith appears to share Kohli’s ability to maintain (or improve) his batting performance while captaining his team, however unlike his Indian rival, his captaincy was a poor imitation of his predecessor in the role.  His regime (although that term suggests an image of authority he clearly didn’t have) was ended as a result of the cheating that went on in South Africa.  My words may be blunt but, with hindsight I do not tarnish him with the same brush as Warner, Haddin and Clarke (latter two were not involved in South Africa) who, in their public showings, appear to have no notion of the game’s core spirit.  No, Steve Smith’s leadership will be remembered for terrible judgement and the remarkable immaturity unveiled during the aftermath of that match and tour.  He may well go on to become Australia’s most successful batsman of the modern era but anyone who believes the definition of greatness lies beyond simple numbers should never again bestow him with it.

Root is a different case again, as his batting has declined in the last 3 years – just 6 centuries in 36 tests and an average that now sits under 50 which contrasts poorly with the others.  Root’s struggles may lie in mantle of English captaincy because, again unlike the others, he leads a side of aging players (some of whom debuted 3-4 captaincies ago!).  He is the youngest of the four so has more time to rescue his stats, but if the careers of Vaughan, Strauss, and Cook are any measure I would not hold out much hope.  I will, give him credit for the marked turn around in the English ODI team though, which is a new group and very much of his own creation since the disastrous 2015 campaign.  As a captain and batsman, he has created a juggernaut of one-day cricket to the surprise of many, and I will continue to admire his ability to match his throwback English style of batting with the needs of high-scoring modern cricket.

Lastly, we have our own Kane Williamson who has spent three years hoovering up NZ batting records and improved his batting stats nicely.  I would not say his rise has plateaued but there is a definite feeling of a flattening-curve to his personal form – perhaps more pronounced in his one-day form where he seems plagued with impressive 60s, 70s and 80s.  I would also question his captaincy nous – particularly at the beginning – as too much Vettori and not enough McCullum, but what maintains my hope is the fact that he is such a student of his own game.  We’ve seen him methodically improve his own batting in each facet, there’s no reason that he cannot do the same with his captaincy and develop into a brilliant tactician.

The four pillars of modern batting continue to play their cricket above everyone else’s heads, but to rank them on their own lofty plane is to examine their captaincy of their respective teams and how they inspire their comrades (or not) to match them – even if mere mortals may only glimpse that plane of existence for moments at a time.  I will come back to this in three more years no doubt, but hopefully with many more blog posts in between this time!

Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again

It's good bye for now