Absolutely incorrect post factually
Smith had a tremendous support from Warner, Clarke, Rogers, and Watson. Even the likes of Khwaja, Voges, etc. bat like ATGs in home tests.
Smith has been leading Australia's batting since 2013 after Clarke lead their batting during 2011-2012. The likes of Voges and Khawaja have had two good series only and became part of the team only last year.
Watson has been an inconsequential, poor Test batsman since his purple patch in 2009-10. He averages like 30 odd in the last 30 Tests that he has played.
Michael Clarke himself averaged in the mid 30's since 2013 once his back gave up. He has been playing through painkillers and was half the player he was.
Good call with Rogers, he provided ample support. However, keeping all of this in mind, you cannot compare the support Smith has had in the early days of his Test career to the support de Villiers got from Smith, Kallis and Amla.
The difference is huge.
Root is a part of a very strong batting line up which bats all the way to #8.
England have a good batting lineup now (although not without 2-3 headaches) but they were a mess during 2014 and the better part of 2015 due to the loss of Pietersen, Trott, Prior and Bell, and they are still struggling to find an opener for Cook.
Cook himself had a lean patch in 2014-2015 (before UAE tour) where he finally got back to his best. The likes of Bairstow got going in the summer of 2015 only and Moeen Ali has had one series only (vs Pakistan last summer) where he looked like a proper Test batsman.
Joe Root has been the only consistent performer in the batting lineup during all this time and has had too much responsibility on his shoulders.
The 2015 Ashes is a good example. He was pretty much a one man show for England with the bat and the only one who scored hundreds. Almost every other batsman averaged in the early 30s and 20s.
That Ashes alone proves his caliber and de Villiers has never had so much responsibility up until the last couple of years, where he failed miserably in Sri Lanka and Amla was standing tall on his own. That series alone sums up how overrated de Villiers is as a Test batsman and how inferior he is to Amla in this format.
Kohli has tremendous support from Rahane and Vijay. In the past, he played with ATGs.
Again, Kohli became a Test regular on the Australian tour in 2011/12, where he batted at number 6 and had a decent series. He was the only Indian who scored a century.
Tendulkar was decent while Dravid, Sehwag and Laxman failed badly. Both Dravid and Laxman retired on that tour.
Tendulkar played till the end of 2013 but he was averaging in the mid 20's till then and was completely over the hill.
Sehwag only played for a few more Tests and was over the hill as well.
So what do you mean by the in the past he played with ATGs?
As I explained, they were ATGs at that time only by name. They were all expired by the time Kohli became a Test regular and thus, he was immediately thrusted with way too much responsibility as he ushered the team into a new era without legends like Tendulkar, Dravid, Sehwag and Laxman. Proven performers like Gambhir also lost their way and it was down to Kohli, Pujara and Rahane to carry the Indian batting.
Again, you cannot compare his situation and support to de Villiers. If he would have played with Tendulkar or Dravid who were still at their peak like de Villiers did with Kallis and Amla, then it would have been comparable.
Williamson is the only batsman who plays for a weak team.
Weak team means nothing. We are talking about the strength of batting lineups.
Devilliers is definitely below Amla, Sanga, Cook, etc.
If de Villiers is not among the top 4-5 Test batsmen of his generation, than by rating him so highly in Tests, you are clearly overrating him. No great player in history struggled to be named in the top 4-5 of his time and still be remembered as a great. Hence this proves that de Villiers is a very good Test player but not the Test great that you make him to be, and the younger generation of players whom you call overrated have an excellent chance of overtaking him as a Test batsman.
However, it is ridiculous to say he does not have impactful/memorable innings when he actually has more of these innings compared to Smith, Williamson, and Root. His match-winning 217 vs India in Ahmedabad, 174 in Leeds, 169 in Perth in a low scoring match, 33* of 220 balls to save the match in Adelaide. Come back when they have played Devilliers like innings.
The guy has played 106 Tests. How many have the young 'overrated' batsmen played? They have already plenty of fantastic innings and are scoring hundreds at a better rate, in spite of having to deal with a lot more pressure and responsibility than de Villiers, who finally got exposed to that level of responsibility in the last 2 years and now he is already gassed out and is contemplating retirement from Tests because he wants to manage his 'workload'.
That however is who de Villiers is. An extremely talented but soft cricketer, who does not have the heart to lead his team from the front and have the stomach for a fight, and that is why he is a pathetic captain and leader.
If he would have been exposed to the amount of pressure and responsibility that Williamson, Smith, Root and Kohli have been earlier in his career in his early to mid 20's, he would have ran away from Test cricket long ago.
Often, they score runs when conditions are the easiest and go missing when things get tough. Asian tours is a clear example.
Looks like you missed SA's tour of SL in 2014.
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