Smith or Kohli: Not since Lara and Sachin have we had two batsmen so far ahead of the chasing pack

For a long time, the list of the very best batsmen in the world was quite crowded. There were four names, and depending on form or fitness you could argue that any one of them was the best right now. Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Joe Root and Kane Williamson. All in their 20s, all captains of their respective teams. The four of them were top of the world and vying for supremacy.

But in recent months, Smith and Kohli have broken away from the others to such an extent that if it were a Formula One race they would have lapped the field several times over. They are very different in technique and in character but they are the best that the sport has, and the two of them are getting better and better. While Smith has been leading Australia to a 2-0 series lead against England, Kohli has been setting up a win for India against Sri Lanka.

We have not seen two batsmen so far ahead of the rest of their international counterparts since Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar were ripping apart bowling attacks in the late 1990s. That such a comparison is even possible gives you an idea of where the careers of Kohil and Smith are heading.

Smith’s unbeaten hundred in the first Test of the current Ashes series in Brisbane was his current batting outlook in microcosm. He plays in such a strange way. He moves across his stumps almost every ball while almost never getting out LBW. His fidgeting demeanor is like that of a terrified tail-ender on debut, his returns are so good that only Don Bradman (and the wonderful statistical outlier Adam Voges) has him beat.

Going into the 2013 Ashes, he had a Test high score of 92 and an average of 32.66. At one point during that series his average dipped below 30. From that low point it has only been upwards movement. When he made 138 not out against England at the Oval that summer he had already transitioned from a porcine faced leg-spinner into a very good batsman. Since then he has been in the middle of a ridiculous purple patch that has seen his Test average reached over 60. He has played 47 Tests, scored 21 Test hundreds and averaged almost 70 since that game in South London four years ago.

Watching captain’s try and work out how best to dismiss Smith is like seeing particularly dim contestants on a game show trying to solve an obscure puzzle. The pieces are moved around frantically trying to find a formula that will unlock the prize. In the end, all that they are left with for all of their efforts is frustration. Catchers in front of the wicket, leg slips, bowling wide, bowling straight, bowling full, bowling short. None of it works it seems. A team of mathematicians working non-stop for the next 50 years would struggle to crack the formula.

While Smith is all obtuse angles and jutting elbows, Kohli is the classicist. While Smith is about quiet determination. Kohli bristles with anger and aggression.

Kohli’s form over the last three years is no less remarkable than Smith’s. Since he took over the Test captaincy in December 2014, Kohli has scored 13 hundreds. Six of those have been doubles, and all have those 200 plus scores have been made in the last 18 months. Since he made that first 200 against the West Indies in July 2016 he has made nine hundreds, the lowest ton-up score he has been dismissed for is 167.

While Kohli’s record as a Test player is amazing, he averages 67 as Test captain, it as a white ball player that he is truly otherworldly. He recently became the fastest to 9000 ODI runs, he has 32 hundreds in the format and with those with more than 2000 ODI runs he has the best average. In 2017, Kohli has 1460 ODI runs at an average of 76.84. That is nearly 400 runs more than the next player on that list.

Now, compare his career with that of Sachin Tendulkar. After 202 matches Kohli has 9030 ODI runs at an average of 55.74. At the same stage Tendulkar had 7454 runs at an average of 42. He had 13 fewer than Kohli has after 202 games. There are all sorts of knots you can tie yourself into to give Tendulkar the edge. He didn’t open when he first got in the side, the bats were smaller, the bowlers were better. Even if these things mattered or were true (they don’t and they aren’t) Kohli is set to smash all the ODI batting records.

When these men walk out to the crease, there is an inevitability about their impending success. While Joe Root makes good-looking scores of 65, Smith and Kohli aren’t happy until they have 165. They just don’t waste a start and they rarely fail to get one either.

The difference in talent between cricketers at this level isn’t that big. It is a matter of fractions of a fraction. Some players can dominate in domestic cricket and are never able to make the step up when under the most intense pressure and scrutiny they crumble. You cannot always attribute success or failure to ability.

The same is true when it comes to being very good and becoming an all-time great. It seems unlikely that any coach, analyst or interested observer would be able to tell you exactly what makes these two batsmen so much more able to turn starts into massive scores, and to do so with such regularity. You could talk about trigger movements, contact points, shot selection and the ability to concentrate. But are Smith and Kohli really that much better at these things than the batsmen that aren’t as successful?

What we do know, what is very obvious, is that these two players are set to become the ones that we talk to the next generation of cricket fans about. Whether the innings that we discuss will be Smith at Perth against England, or Kohli in Delhi against Sri Lanka, we will be discussing them.

When I was young, I had Lara and I had Tendulkar, and I had to make a choice. When today’s new cricket fans have to make the same decision about whether they love Smith or Kohli more they will be just as lucky as I was when had to pick between two all-time greats.