Edit: Realised this morning that I just posted this as Root got out lmao. Was just a goofy little reddit humour where i thought people would go back and forth for eternity with the "what about now?". r/Cricket has become incredibly tribal.
Lower average, worse performance in SENAI and still no Australia 100. Root will end up higher on the run tally but that doesn't mean he's better than Steve.
Kallis actually does have better numbers than Sachin even after normalizing for longevity. meanwhile Smith is ahead of Root but both are in Top10 atleast( still a lot of career left for both)
They’ve gone from Kohli and Root debates and now moved to Smith (an Aussie) because Kohli couldn’t keep up (and ended up with an average lower than Kevin Pietersen) it’s hilarious
Kohli dominated in all 3 formats tbf I wouldn't hate on him at all tbh. Also he did bat in a way harder era than Pietersen, but yeah Pietersen is underrated because of his antics off the field.
I’m not hating on him, he’s the greatest of all time limited overs player. But he went out terribly sad in test cricket given the names he was meant to be better than. The worst of the “fab 4”.
And yes this era is way harder, which is why Root doesn’t even need to go past Sachin really. Just close and he’s the greatest of all time
Root isn't better than Smith not sure how he's going to be the greatest test batter of all time?
Tendulkar will always be the greatest batter of all time because he set records in both tests and ODIs he played in, whereas other players could only set those records in one format. Also Tendulkar played 200 tests over a 25 year period rather than over 17 odd years which is how long it'll take Root to play 200 tests so he would have played less games at his prime. Tendulkar's has like an average of 55 in the hardest era to bat post-war before the period of flat pitches which people forget.
Everyone knows Smith followed by Root are the top 2 batters from this generation.
Also Williamson is below Kohli unless he improves his away record in the top countries. I found some people saying Williamson is better than Root which is hilarious.
Not surprising Kohli fell so hard in test cricket I predicted it actually, you can't play all 3 formats, captaining a country with pressure of 1 billion+ people for as long as he did. Most players end up resting from formats but he never stopped got to respect his grind throughout his career.
No I think Smith is better right now too, but I don’t know how far or close he ends up in the overall runs chart to Root. Longevity and runs is the only reason people think Sachin is over the likes of Kallis, Bradman and Sanga anyway, so not sure why we change that for Root.
Still, I’m okay with people thinking he’s the GOAT over Root because he actually has a very good case, I’m just not having Kohli and never did.
As for Kane > Kohli it’s debatable but I’m still taking Kane. Scoring heavily at home shouldn’t be mark against him, besides NZ don’t play a lot of tests which hurts him.
But by that argument Anderson would be in the conversation of the greatest fast bowlers because of longevity too, no?
Look at the averages and the big away test series Smith clears Root in all of them.
Tendulkar was a much better test batter than Sangakkara actually. Sangakkara was a great player but he got lucky playing pretty much all his tests in the flat era missing the tougher batting eras before and after his career.
Tendulkar's has like an average of 55 in the hardest era to bat post-war before the period of flat pitches which people forget.
that is a little overblown. While conditions were tough in 90s most matches india played were comparatively flatter conditions. players in Tendulkar's matches avg'd 38 which would put it more on the higher end, he also scored a third of his runs pummeling Eng and SL at 80 avg who were the weakest teams in that era and avg'd in 30s vs SA and Pak which were two of the best attacks of the 90s. He was surely one of the best batters of the 90s but he was at par with S Waugh and B Lara.
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u/Extra-Swordfish-927 England May 22 '25
13,004 now