Steve Smith is back in form in Test cricket. The Australian batter scored his 36th century in the format on Day 1 of the 1st Test against Sri Lanka at Galle. In the same innings, the captain of Australia in the absence of regular skipper Pat Cummins became just the fourth Australian to breach the mark of 10,000 Test runs. Aakash Chopra, a former Indian batter, set Steve Smith at 10,140 runs with an average of 56.33 in 115 Tests.
Chopra pointed out that Smith now has five more Test centuries than Virat Kohli, but in five more innings.
“Smith has scored one century against Sri Lanka. He has gotten to 35 centuries in just 205 innings. Root has scored 36 centuries but in 278 innings. So, in terms of scoring a 100, Smith is ahead of Root,” said Chopra on his Youtube channel.
Chopra also highlighted that now Kohli has the worst average relative to his Fab 4 contemporaries of Smith, Joe Root, and Kane Williamson.
“If I look at Kohli, he has played 210 innings, which means he has batted five more times than Steve Smith, but he has five less centuries than him. Unfortunately, Kohli right now has the worst stats because he has only hit three centuries in five years,” said Chopra.
During this period, Kohli had a tough 2024. In the last 10 Tests, he scored only 417 runs at an average of 24.52, with one century and one half-century to show for a very disappointing year.
He has been suffering a drastic decline in his Test performances since early 2020. Since early 2020, Virat has played 39 Test matches and has not been able to score more than 2,028 runs at an average of 30.72. He has only three Test centuries and nine fifties after these matches, and his best score is 186.
Download the CricInformer app
Take CricInformer with you. Get our app for cricket news and updates on your phone.