How Smith stacks up to The Don
The Australia captain is building an impressive record that may almost rival the greatest batsman of all time
Finding a parallel between Don Bradman and any other Test batsman is about as difficult as bowling to The Don himself. In terms of average, nobody has remained as consistently meteoric as Bradman.
Ask Adam Voges, who briefly ascended beyond the summit of 99.94 before slipping and falling to base camp with an average of 61.87, still an incredible number.
In terms of aggregate, nobody has reached 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 and 5,000 Test runs faster than Bradman, and he’s second fastest to 1,000, one innings behind co-leaders Herbert Sutcliffe and Everton Weekes, who did it in a dozen digs. The list of records go on and on, from his absurd ratio of a century every 2.76 innings to his conversion rate of 2.23 for 50-plus scores to hundreds, but there is a figure that can be used as a marker against the Boy from Bowral.
Bradman played 52 Tests, a number of matches that 249 players have reached - the latest of whom is Australia captain Steve Smith. So it’s only fitting that we look to the record books in attempt to discover any parallels between Test cricket’s greatest batsman and the game’s current batting supremo.
The debut In hindsight it might sound absurd, but after one Test Bradman was dropped. Debuting as a 20-year-old against England in Brisbane in November, 1928, he made 18 and 1 batting at No.7 and No.6, respectively, as the visitors won by the small margin of 675 runs.
Smith was 21 when he wore the Baggy Green for the first time in July 2010, chosen as a leg-spinner who batted at No.8 and No.9, scoring 1 and 12 with the bat and claiming 3-41 with the ball. Australia won the match by 150 runs against Pakistan at Lord’s and Smith played the following match in Leeds. The maiden century Bradman made amends for his poor first Test with 79 and then 112 in the second innings at the Melbourne Cricket Ground two Tests after he was axed.
Batting at No.6, he was at the crease for 281 balls and 246 minutes for his 112 in a timeless Test that lasted seven days and saw England seal the five-match series 3-0 with two matches to spare. While Bradman wasted no time in reaching triple figures upon his return, it took Smith until his 12th match to register his first century. He got close with 92 in Mohali in March 2013 and 89 against England in Manchester four months later before he finally broke through with an unbeaten 138 at The Oval in the final Test of the Ashes series, reaching the landmark with a handsome straight six.
The streaks Bradman holds the record of most hundreds in consecutive matches with six, from January 1937 to July 1938. His run of centuries reads: 270, 212, 169, 144no, 102no and 103, with four of those scores coming in the second innings. For good measure, Bradman also put together two streaks of four consecutive matches with a century.
Smith can’t match the Don in this category, however, the animated right-hander scored a century in four straight matches when he rattled off 162no, 133, 192 and 117 against India in the 2014-15 home summer. Smith is the most recent batsman to achieve this feat and the first since perhaps the closest rival to Bradman, the great Sachin Tendulkar, who humbled Bangladesh and South Africa in 2010.
The captaincy In 1936, Bradman was given the Test captaincy and started out in rocky fashion. He lost his first two Tests in charge and was out for two ducks that combined lasted a total of three balls. But you can’t keep an immortal of the game down for long. Bradman peeled off centuries - 270, 212 and 169 - in the next three Tests to clinch the series 3-2. In 24 Tests as captain, Bradman scored 3,147 runs and 14 centuries at an extraordinary 101.51.
He never lost a Test series in charge and bowed out of the game with an ironic second-ball duck at The Oval in the undefeated 1948 ‘Invincibles’ Tour. So far Smith has captained 22 Tests, his first coming in December 2014 when he filled in for the injured Michael Clarke.
Unlike Bradman, Smith started his tenure with a sparkling 133 at the Gabba against India. He took over the top job on a full-time basis in November 2015 and since then has lost only two series – in Sri Lanka last winter and the following series against South Africa at home.
Like Bradman, leadership sits well with him. In 22 matches as skipper Smith has scored 2,384 runs and 10 centuries at 70.11, with his finest hundred in charge perhaps the 109 he crafted in Pune late last month to drive Australia to their first Test win in India in 13 years.
The tale of 52 As it stands, Smith trails only India’s Sunil Gavaskar as Test cricket’s leading run-scorer after 52 matches. And Bradman, of course. Smith sits in third with 4,924 runs, 83 runs behind Gavaskar and a whopping 2,072 runs adrift of Bradman’s mark of 6,996.
Smith’s 18 Test centuries is the joint second-most by an Australian after 52 Tests, equal with Matthew Hayden but 11 behind Bradman’s incredible 29 tons. Smith’s 59.33 is the second-best average by an Australian in the same period and the fourth best ever, bettered by Bradman, Sutcliffe (61.85) and Jack Hobbs (60.21).
Comparing the peerless Bradman to any other batsman is almost futile, but at the same stage, Smith might just be the next best thing.
http://www.cricket.com.au/news/feature/how-does-steve-smith-compare-with-sir-donald-bradman-australia-cricket/2017-03-12
