Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Does anyone consider Root to be a better player than Smith anymore?

Not anymore.

If we are talking about an England player then I would definitely stick with Root as his average at home is 59 to Smith's 43 in England. In Oz then it has to be Smith as his home game average is 68 to Root's 27 average in Oz. Personally although Smith has generally higher averages I prefer Root as his technique is much sounder and likely to be of benefit in the long term.

Smith at the moment, though Root has yet to reach his prime. I'm hoping we'll see a few test tons once Root becomes skipper.

i might need a lie down after a really late night, not having slept yet and a bad hangover coming on but i kinda agree with Hope

i keep waiting for Smith's timing and fantastic hand-eye co-ordination to start letting him down and not having a solid technique to fall back on but he just seems to keep getting better

I read a lot that SS's off to leg style will stop providing once his reflexes/eyes lose their sharpness. That won't help any batter, but that sort of style suited G.Smith, KP and Viv for long enough.

Smith averages over 60. He's a phenomenon. My caveat is a lot of Aussie batters all together have been turning out remarkable stats and there might be an overall reason for that

Moving to off and playing to leg seems a standard method for SA batsmen, Jonathan Trott does the same but they learned how to adapt to swinging conditions, I'm not convince Smith has done so. My belief is that bowlers don't attack the correct line outside Smith's off stump often enough, even when they try they lose patience and try to get him LBW as he looks a prime candidate. Kohli is not too dissimilar to Smith and even Cook in his struggles tried a similar approach but it didn't help him much. G. Smith from memory didn't move to off he stood almost in front of his wicket and stood and delivered without footwork, relying on not missing the ball.

Right now it's no contest : Smith is a mile in front on sheer weight of runs.

I'm not expecting him to maintain his current average : think he's had a great run of late , much as Kohli did until very recently ; imagine he will hit a flat spot eventually. But he has really played wonderfully well as captain , and his seemingly insatiable thirst for big scores means that once he is set he's way more likely than Root to go on to a big one - and/or a not out.

As to who is technically better ; that's a different question. And since they don't give style points in cricket , and the majority of pitches are basically batsman friendly these days ...

Conversion rates
Smith - 20 100s 20 50s (54 Tests)
Root - 11 100s 27 50s (53 Tests)