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K. Williamson, V. Kohli, J. Root & Steve Smith are the 'Big Four' of world cricket's premier batsmen

street cricketer said:
The 4 batsmen are often grouped together mainly because all 4 are top batsmen in the world and belong to a similar age group. You could argue for Warner to be included in that but the reason AB and Amla aren't included is because they are experienced batsmen and older than these 4. It's the same reason why Starc, Amir, Rabada (and Fizz) are often grouped together whereas Jimmy Anderson and Steyn are left out eventhough they are better at this stage.
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You are right about the age group, which is why I always focused on the importance of the "young guns" and not necessarily the fact that they are the premier batsman in world cricket.. BTW, Kohli should be disqualified from that group given that he is old, even Misbah looks younger than him :misbah

David warner is ignored because he isn't as good as the others but world class nonetheless.
 
yasir_shah said:
I'm a die hard YK fan and he's an amazing batsman but not even in the top 5 for me LOL this is some b***s***!

Root, Williamson, Smith, Kohli and Amla are all better.

He's about the same level as someone like Rahane who both just miss out on that top 5 list...

Just to make it clear we're not talking about achievements, we're talking about current affairs and how they fare atm...
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These four are young, and you can't compare them to YK, who is a legend.
 
Aman said:
KW before the D/N Test.

140 - last batsmen out, had to score quick runs.
59
166 - threw his wicket away from boredom.
32*
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KW is great. My point was Kohli scoring four hundreds in four test in Australia adds a lot to his credibility because somebody was discrediting by saying the pitches were flat for the series. The pitches have been flat for long time in Australia but only the really high quality players(of the touring team) made runs on there.
 
Kohli & root are the best imo. Smith is a beast in tests and won them the wc semifinal but his batting likes the flair & style. Williamson is very good too but I don't remember him winning an odi or t20 for nz. Guptill and anderson are much better match winners.
 
I think Sabbir Rehman and Mushfiqur Rahim should be added and increase the list to 6. They recently challenged England that they will chase 500 :shakib
 
liquidice said:
Kohli & root are the best imo. Smith is a beast in tests and won them the wc semifinal but his batting likes the flair & style. Williamson is very good too but I don't remember him winning an odi or t20 for nz. Guptill and anderson are much better match winners.
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New Zealand vs Australia, Group Stage match at the World Cup.
 
IMO when talking only of tests, Kohli does not belong to the level of Smith, Root and KW yet from a performance perspective. He may the ability and all, but other than the Australia series last year, hasn't yet been very consistent in tests. Take recent WI for example. Started brilliantly and then faded away with 3 mediocre scores.

An average of 45 in the modern era (Smith's average is 59, Root's 55 and KW's 51) will at best make him a tier 2 test batsman not even close to the one in top 4. Performances in ODIs and T20s should not be counted when talking of test batting.

Dare I say, Rahane is currently a better test batsman than Kohli.
 
ShoonyaSifar said:
IMO when talking only of tests, Kohli does not belong to the level of Smith, Root and KW yet from a performance perspective. He may the ability and all, but other than the Australia series last year, hasn't yet been very consistent in tests. Take recent WI for example. Started brilliantly and then faded away with 3 mediocre scores.

An average of 45 in the modern era (Smith's average is 59, Root's 55 and KW's 51) will at best make him a tier 2 test batsman not even close to the one in top 4. Performances in ODIs and T20s should not be counted when talking of test batting.

Dare I say, Rahane is currently a better test batsman than Kohli.
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Kohli is not top test bat. Smith, Root and KW have scored lot of runs in difficult and foreign conditions.
 
ShoonyaSifar said:
Dare I say, Rahane is currently a better test batsman than Kohli.
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Rahane currently avgs 49 and is hitting that 50 avg mark soon even though he has played 25 tests only.If we restrict the comparison to tests, he is one of the best young (25-30 age grp) test bat in world.He would lack series where he piled loads of runs but then he bats at 5 which should. be taken into consideration too.

He doesn't possess the charisma of the fab four though.
 
Kohli just has that x-factor which the other 3 dont. He has that big personality and swagger which the other 3 lack and it is what makes him the superstar of this era.

IMO Kohli has brought a new brand of cricket to T20's. He has showed that it is not all about slogging and instead plays some incredible strokes to find the boundary. His style of turning 1s into 2s and 2s into 3s also adds pressure to the opposition and shows other ways in which T20s can be played although you must be super fit for this.
Virat is probably the fittest cricketer in the world right now which can be seen by looking at his physique. It is perfect for an athlete and is also what puts him a level above the others. Perfect role model and must be a sponsors dream.
 
ShoonyaSifar said:
IMO when talking only of tests, Kohli does not belong to the level of Smith, Root and KW yet from a performance perspective. He may the ability and all, but other than the Australia series last year, hasn't yet been very consistent in tests. Take recent WI for example. Started brilliantly and then faded away with 3 mediocre scores.

An average of 45 in the modern era (Smith's average is 59, Root's 55 and KW's 51) will at best make him a tier 2 test batsman not even close to the one in top 4. Performances in ODIs and T20s should not be counted when talking of test batting.

Dare I say, Rahane is currently a better test batsman than Kohli.
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If you are going to judge them on their average, lets accept Smith is the best of the lot and rest are not on his level.
 
Ab Fan said:
Rahane currently avgs 49 and is hitting that 50 avg mark soon even though he has played 25 tests only.If we restrict the comparison to tests, he is one of the best young (25-30 age grp) test bat in world.He would lack series where he piled loads of runs but then he bats at 5 which should. be taken into consideration too.

He doesn't possess the charisma of the fab four though.
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Nobody except Kohli has swagger, charisma x factor etc. Smith, Root and KW are all boring personalities. rahane's limitted overs game robs him of his place with the big 4
 
Boom boom legend said:
Kohli just has that x-factor which the other 3 dont. He has that big personality and swagger which the other 3 lack and it is what makes him the superstar of this era.

IMO Kohli has brought a new brand of cricket to T20's. He has showed that it is not all about slogging and instead plays some incredible strokes to find the boundary. His style of turning 1s into 2s and 2s into 3s also adds pressure to the opposition and shows other ways in which T20s can be played although you must be super fit for this.
Virat is probably the fittest cricketer in the world right now which can be seen by looking at his physique. It is perfect for an athlete and is also what puts him a level above the others. Perfect role model and must be a sponsors dream.
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Those things are good to have but runs on the board wins you matches.
 
Kohli's overseas record is good. He needs to score in India and hit some stat-padding casual hundreds to bring up that average.
 
In terms of best bat
1) smith
2)Williamson
3)root
4)kohli

Most pleasing to watch

1)Kohli
2)Root
3)Williamson
4)Smith
 
JattMaula said:
Kohli is not top test bat. Smith, Root and KW have scored lot of runs in difficult and foreign conditions.
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Away from home:

Root - 1404 runs - avg of 48
KW - 2513 runs - avg of 49
Kohli - 2110 runs - avg of 47
Smith - 2249 runs - avg of 56

Root has the least amount of runs away from home.
 
Sachin136 said:
Such as?

Kohli has scored in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. What more do you want?
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I think he is referring to Root's 88 runs at avg of 18 in NZ and 192 runs at avg of 27 in Aus being way better than Kohli's 214 runs in NZ at avg of 71 in NZ and 992 runs at avg of 68 in Australia.

Or Root's 386 runs at avg of 55 in SA in impossible to bat situations v Kohli's 272 runs at avg of 68 on flat decks of SA.
 
AlizeeFan said:
I think he is referring to Root's 88 runs at avg of 18 in NZ and 192 runs at avg of 27 in Aus being way better than Kohli's 214 runs in NZ at avg of 71 in NZ and 992 runs at avg of 68 in Australia.

Or Root's 386 runs at avg of 55 in SA in impossible to bat situations v Kohli's 272 runs at avg of 68 on flat decks of SA.
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The stats have been posted numerous times. People intentionally ignore them and stick with their belief that Root and the others are better than Kohli just because he failed in England.
 
AlizeeFan said:
I think he is referring to Root's 88 runs at avg of 18 in NZ and 192 runs at avg of 27 in Aus being way better than Kohli's 214 runs in NZ at avg of 71 in NZ and 992 runs at avg of 68 in Australia.

Or Root's 386 runs at avg of 55 in SA in impossible to bat situations v Kohli's 272 runs at avg of 68 on flat decks of SA.
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Kohli was fortune to get 100 of those, he nicked off in the last innings of the tour when the match was heading towards a draw.
 
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Virat has failed in India lately which is the hardest place to bat. No need to say anything about his English tour.
 
Kohli is definitely the worst. At least in Tests. Which is the toughest and most prestigious format.
 
Still think Kohli is number 2, although Kane looked like he was back at his best since becoming captain in the last Test. Unflappable.

When he's in that little bubble and focused on only batting and nothing else, he's one of the best in the world.
 
For me, it's:

Virat Kohli
Steve Smith
Kane Williamson
Joe Root

In that order. Still not fully convinced by Smith's contributions in LOIs but if he keeps it up for the next 6-12 months, he'll definitely be the best in my eyes.

Kohli must improve in Tests else he could go fall from #1 to #3 on that list for me.
 
Arsalan Pro said:
In Tests:
S Smith
K Williamson
J Root
V Kohli
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If we're talking Tests I think that is fair currently.

Look at the last 4 years and both Smith and Williamson are miles ahead of the field, with Smith averaging 66 in the last 4 years, Willamson 63 while Root and Kohli are in the early 50s, so I fail to see how so many are rating Root and Kohli ahead of Williamson in Test cricket.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...3;spanval1=span;template=results;type=batting



I also don't like people combining Tests, ODIs & T20I together, but if you must that's when Kohli suddenly looks better, although Williamson's ODI and T20I stats are actually surprisingly good, at least as good, if not better than Smith or Root's.

I always prefer to assess the formats separately.
 
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