New Zealand national cricket team’s veteran pacer Tim Saudi recently picked the best batsman among the quartet of Kane Williamson, Virat Kohli, Joe Root and Steve Smith.
Over the past decade, four great batsmen have dominated the cricketing world and in recent times there has been much debate as to who among Smith, Kohli, Root and Williamson is the greatest batsman.
In terms of numbers, Virat Kohli is way ahead of his peers in white-ball cricket, but in red-ball cricket, Root, Williamson and Smith have averaged better than the Indian batting maestro.
Kohli has scored over 13,000 runs in ODIs and over 4,000 runs in T20Is, while Smith, Root and Williamson are yet to reach 7,000 runs in ODIs or 3,000 runs in T20Is. In Test cricket, every batsman has scored over 8,000 runs, with Root topping the list with over 13,000 runs.
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Meanwhile, Kiwi star Tim Saudi on Sunday weighed in on the Fab Four debate, rating Kane Williamson as superior to Smith, Root and Kohli.
“I’ve probably bowled to Kane the most in the nets. It’s always a tough challenge as a bowler to be tested every day by one of the best in the world in the nets. To see Kane do it himself is incredible. The other players are also great. There’s a reason they’re called the Fab Four,” Tim Saudi said on the eve of New Zealand’s one-match Test against Afghanistan, according to the Indian Express.
Here’s a statistical comparison of the Fab Four:
| player | format | Matches played | innings | Scored runs | Highest score | average | Hit rate | 100 seconds | 50’s |
| Virat Kohli | test | 113 | 191 | 8848 | 254* | 49.15 | 55.56 | 29 | 30 |
| ODIs | 295 | 283 | 13906 | 183 | 58.18 | 93.54 | 50 | 72 | |
| T20Is | 125 | 117 | 4188 | 122* | 48.69 | 137.04 | 1 | 38 | |
| Steve Smith | test | 109 | 195 | 9685 | 239 | 56.97 | 53.5 | 32 | 41 |
| ODIs | 158 | 142 | 5446 | 164 | 43.91 | 87.41 | 12 | 33 | |
| T20Is | 67 | 55 | 1094 | 90 | 24.86 | 125.45 | 0 | 5 | |
| Joe Root | test | 145 | 265 | 12377 | 254 | 50.93 | 56.98 | 34 | 64 |
| ODIs | 171 | 160 | 6522 | 133* | 47.6 | 86.77 | 16 | 39 | |
| T20Is | 32 | 30 | 893 | 90* | 35.72 | 126.3 | 0 | 5 | |
| kane williamson | test | 100 | 176 | 8743 | 251 | 54.98 | 51.41 | 32 | 34 |
| ODIs | 165 | 157 | 6810 | 148 | 48.64 | 81.38 | 13 | 45 | |
| T20Is | 93 | 90 | 2575 | 95 | 33.44 | 123.08 | 0 | 18 |
Afghanistan has been an improving side for years. – Team Saudi
New Zealand are gearing up for a big Test season with a one-off Test match against Afghanistan followed by three matches against India and a Test series against England.
On this, Tim Southee said that the upcoming Test matches are a big challenge for them and they will have to manage the players of different formats of cricket properly. Tim Southee said:
“It’s a challenge for every team. Players who play multiple formats have to balance the changing nature of a busy schedule, so we haven’t played Test cricket for a while. We’re very excited and looking forward to playing Test cricket.
“It’s exciting for our team to play nine Test matches in such a short space of time and it’s something we don’t normally experience.”
Talking about Afghanistan, the team that recently defeated the Black Caps in the T20 World Cup 2024, Team Saudi said that they have always fought and improved a lot. Team Saudi said:
“Afghanistan have been a team that has been improving over the years and whenever we play against them, especially in these circumstances, we know that it is going to be a fight. We saw in the T20 World Cup how dangerous they can be.
“They have gained a lot of confidence from their success in the One-Day World Cup in India last year as well as the T20 World Cup and although they are still new to the Test format, I am sure they will want to continue to grow in this format as they have in the other two.”
Meanwhile, the one-off Test match between New Zealand and Afghanistan is scheduled to be played at the Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground in Greater Noida from September 9 to 13.
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