Steve Smith has undoubtedly been one of the most classic Test batsmen of this era. Watching him bat through the years has been nothing short of delightful for fans across the globe (albeit less so for English fans). But just how good a Test batsman is Steve Smith, in light of his predecessors? And how well do his statistics hold up in comparison to the titans of Australian Test cricket?

Now, rest assured, comparing players across eras is never easy. Cricket as a game has evolved quite a lot, and so has the approach of Cricketers. The game favors the batsmen now more than ever before, so any statistical comparison across eras has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Nevertheless, the beauty of Test Cricket is that it tends to test the core strengths and weaknesses of batsmen in similar ways even across different eras. The battle against a new ball, the pressure of a chase on a deteriorating pitch, and most of all – showing patience when necessary. This is why it is still worth comparing the batting trajectories of some of the greatest Test batsmen to that of their successors just to see what we can find.

There are still eleven names on top of Steve Smith’s in the list of the top run getters in Australian Test Cricket. However, that is accounted for by the fact that he is still young and will likely play many more solid knocks before hanging up the old Test cap. Of all the Test matches that Smith has played so far, he has batted in a total of 119 innings. Simply comparing the run accumulation in his test career with that of the top five Test run getters for Australia shows that Smith has actually done better than all five of them for the first 119 innings. Not only has he gotten more runs than the top five, but his trajectory of run accumulation continues to become steeper.

Total Number of Runs in first 119 Test Innings

Not accounting for ‘Not Outs’, a simple run average comparison places Smith at a solid 53.7 per innings, better than the average of the first 119 innings of the top five men who scored the most runs for Australia in Tests:

Smith also has 24 hundreds to his name, and continues on the path to scoring more in the on-going Ashes series:

It could be argued that Smith does not face the kind of bowling today as the Australian greats had to once upon a time. But the evolution of Cricket has not just been at the batsmen’s end. While the bowlers today might not bowl with the same pace or swing as before, they have plenty more to offer in other ways. Slower/medium-pace and spin bowling has become more relevant and effective in Cricket more than it was before. Even fast strike bowlers have more productive tricks up their sleeve, having developed various change-ups to deceive batsmen.

So, in light of all these considerations, is Steve Smith still the greatest Australian batsman ever?

Chances are that he will never be as good as Sir Donald Bradman, but leaving the Don aside, his comparison with some of Australia’s greats shows that he has the potential to top all charts by the end of his career. His resilience, despite recent setbacks in his career, has ensured that his trajectory of Test success shows a consistent and sharp rise. So, while it is difficult to say whether he is the best Australian Test batsman ever, there is certainly enough proof to say that he is on the right track to become one of the greatest of all time.

–Fatima Sajid

Fatima is a cricket writer based in Pakistan.