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Placing our bets on "Test Cricket's Young Fab Four"

Which of these "Young Fabbies" will make it the biggest?


  • Total voters
    46
  • Poll closed .

Spark

Global Moderator
Pretty sure IL meant one year into Smiths test career, rather than in the year 2013. And he would be right.
Ah fair enough. In fairness that was dumb on the part of the selectors, many people here wanted him batting 6 instead of Marcus North.

In hindsight, all our complaints about North seem somewhat churlish, tbh—imagine what we'd do with a bloke at 6 who was good at least for a century every four Tests or so...
 

morgieb

Well-known member
Ah fair enough. In fairness that was dumb on the part of the selectors, many people here wanted him batting 6 instead of Marcus North.

In hindsight, all our complaints about North seem somewhat churlish, tbh—imagine what we'd do with a bloke at 6 who was good at least for a century every four Tests or so...
TBF, when the rest of our middle order contained a declining/out of form Ponting and Hussey (as well as Clarke tbf), and therefore was prone to misfiring, it's easy to point the finger at a bloke who was very hit and miss.
 

Burgey

Well-known member
We're not trying to excuse him in advance for a failed series in India I hope...

Smith's overseas record in challenging conditions keeps getting mentioned, so I can't see why any of his advocates wouldn't be extremely confident that in a 4 test series in the toughest place for non-SC sides to tour, he should be able to at least match Root's effort, no?
It's all pie in the sky predicting, it I do expect him to score runs there and do well because he's a gun player in form. If he doesn't, well he'll get marked down for it like others do.
 

Adders

Well-known member
It's a few pages old but I can't imagine anyone thinking Roots' technique is ugly.
Yeah, that really was a bizarre comment by OS. And I can't even see how anyone would think he is a physically ugly bloke either.........

download.jpg

That is not a face that would have to work hard to get a "root" on a Friday night.
 
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OverratedSanity

Well-known member
I may have exaggerated with his face, he looks all right.

But I stand by what I said about his batting. It's just ugly as ****. I've said it before its because of his backlift and trigger movement. Just looks so ungainly. Everything after that (ie) the shots themselves, the follow through etc is fine.
 

vcs

Well-known member
I may have exaggerated with his face, he looks all right.

But I stand by what I said about his batting. It's just ugly as ****. I've said it before its because of his backlift and trigger movement. Just looks so ungainly. Everything after that (ie) the shots themselves, the follow through etc is fine.
His backfoot drive through point is really pretty. I feel that he is more of a predominantly backfoot player than the other 3 in general.

BTW, Kane's recent stance and backlift also looks a bit weird in the past year or so.
 

TheJediBrah

Well-known member
I'm actually with OS here, I definitely wouldn't say Root is an aesthetically pleasing batsman

of the 4 only Kohli really fits that description for mine
 

Coronis

Well-known member
I really couldn't give a **** about their batting aesthetics tbh. At least I've got em all beat in the looks department.
 
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centurymaker

Well-known member
All four have become over rated.. too much hype... Unless they end up playing to their potential, I don't see them being All-time greats. They have holes in their technique tbh.

They are good to very good but not close to being 'Great' in Tests. They have had a relatively easy ride. More often than not, they are facing mediocre attacks & in favourable conditions.

-Anderson & Broad are declining
-Hazlewood & Starc are not in the league of Johnson & Harris
-Ashwin & Jadeja are good, yet a bit too dependent on right conditions
-Southee & Boult have declined
-No Steyn, while Philandar has declined but Rabada is developing.
-Pakistan pacers don't swing it (like they used to), and their fielding is still amazing.

Overall bowling-wise, only India has improved, while rest of the countries are worse-off compared to.. even 2-3 years ago!
 

OverratedSanity

Well-known member
All four have become over rated.. too much hype... Unless they end up playing to their potential, I don't see them being All-time greats. They have holes in their technique tbh.

They are good to very good but not close to being 'Great' in Tests. They have had a relatively easy ride. More often than not, they are facing mediocre attacks & in favourable conditions.

-Anderson & Broad are declining
-Hazlewood & Starc are not in the league of Johnson & Harris
-Ashwin & Jadeja are good, yet a bit too dependent on right conditions
-Southee & Boult have declined
-No Steyn, while Philandar has declined but Rabada is developing.
-Pakistan pacers don't swing it (like they used to), and their fielding is still amazing.

Overall bowling-wise, only India has improved, while rest of the countries are worse-off compared to.. even 2-3 years ago!
Anderson and Broad have still been amazing at home, Haze and Starc are going to be comfortably better than Johnson(probably not Harris), Philander hasnt really declined much at all.

Also, Ponting, Dravid, Sanga, Kallis played the bulk of their careers when fast bowling stocks were far far worse than they are now and they're ATGs.
 
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