When Steve Smith joined the Australian national cricket team as a leg spinner, none would have thought that this New South Wales player can become a modern-day Don Bradman. With his unique batting abilities, he troubled and demolished almost every bowler of this world. Smith debuted as an ODI player in 2010, and during the same time, Virat Kohli was trying to cement his place in team India.
Virat is representing India in ODIs since 2008 and in tests; 2011. Eight years has passed now, and Virat Kohli stands tall as the number one batsman in one-day internationals while Smith stands at 27th.On the other hand, Smith currently tops the test batsman list. However, after the South Africa vs India series (2019), there are chances that the Indian skipper overtakes and retina the number one spot.
All the ranks are according to the list declared by ICC in 2019
Man of the Match awards, centuries, and rankings; for a batsman, everything depends upon the form, experience, and batting skills. Hence we will look at their achievements and some numbers in both the formats of cricket.
Most runs and centuries
First of all, we will look at the number of innings played, battings average, and tons scored by the two elite batsmen of international cricket.
In 79 test matches, Kohli has scored 7,054 runs at an average of 53.14. In this respected test carrier, he has 26 hundred. On the contrary, Smith has played 68 tests and scored 6, 973 runs with an overall average of 64.56. He has hit 26 centuries till now.
Winner: Steve Smith. It looks like king Kohli is slipping in front of SPD Smith in the department of test cricket.
The next front of comparison is ODI, wherein Kohli has played 239 matches, scored 11, 520 runs, and averages 60.31. He has 43 hundred under the belt. Smith seems to be less experienced than the Indian skipper in the day-night clashes. He has scored 3, 810 runs in 118 matches at an average of 41.41. Smith is nowhere close to Kohli in the white ball cricket.
Winner: Virat Kohli
Double centuries
Whether its ODIs or test cricket, temperament is one of the most important things to be a successful player. A batsman playing from the national cricket team should have the ability to build innings and help his team to post a high score. Century is prominent in test and ODIs, but double and triple centuries deserve more value in test cricket.
Number of double centuries deserves a special mention because it shows the patience level of a batsman. The Indian skipper excels in this department because he has recorded seven double hundreds in test cricket, with the highest score of 254 against South Africa. Smith has three double tons, and his highest score is 239.
Winner: Virat Kohli. Ahead of the Australian batsman
At home and away from the soil
Home grounds bring the best out of a batsman because he is familiar with the conditions and knows the pitches. As we know that Kohli is ahead of Smith in the one-day internationals, we will only talk about the tests in this part. Via this approach, we will also know why Smith is better than King Kohli in the red-ball cricket.
Virat Kohli averages 64.68 because of 3105 runs from 54 innings at home. He has a high score of 254 when he was playing against South Africa in 2019. Overall, Kohli has a consistency of 51.92 percent, but his low scoring rate is 42.31.
Smith is a better test player at home as he averages 77.25 in home conditions. His highest score is 239 against England in 2017. So, if we talk about in house test games, Smith edges Kohli with better performance. Stats says that Kohli has a below performance in tests played away from home. He has scored 3508 runs with an average of 46.77 that involves ten half-centuries and 14 tons. His consistency playing away from the ground is 42.65 percent, and hi average of low scores stands at 41.56 percent.
Australian cricketer also has a similar record. He averages 53.88 scorings 3395 runs, which includes 14 half-centuries and 12 tons. Away from Australia, he has a consistency of 42.65 percent, and a low scoring percentage is 41.18, which is not much higher than Kohli.
Conclusion
Virat Kohli has better records in one-day cricket, but when we check the test numbers and compare the data, Steve Smith surpasses Kohli. These two are modern greats, and we will see some neck to neck competition between these two for a higher performance and ICC spots.
This post is written by Stewart Dixon. Stewart is a cricket crazy guy. He loves watch cricket and enjoy every bit of it. Apart from this, he also has interest in football, tennis, and boxing.
