Australian skipper Steve Smith scored his 35th Test ton during the opening day of the Galle Test against Sri Lanka. This puts the Aussie batter just one century behind Joe Root in the current Fab Four era. The Fab Four comprises England’s star batter Joe Root, Australian skipper Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli.
Meanwhile, former India batter Aakash Chopra feels that Steve Smith and Joe Root have overtaken Virat Kohli in the last few years. The 47-year-old who was speaking on his YouTube channel that in current form Smith is a much better batter than Joe Root.
India's former batter said “Smith has scored a century against Sri Lanka. He has struck his 35th century in just 205 innings. Joe Root has scored 36 hundreds but he has played 278 innings. So if you look at it in terms of the strike rate, the number of innings he takes to score a century, then Steve Smith is ahead of Joe Root."
Virat Kohli’s century conversion bothers former India star
During the course of his show on YouTube, Chopra said “If I see Virat Kohli here, he has played 210 innings, which means he has played five more innings than Steve Smith and has five centuries fewer than him. So Virat Kohli, unfortunately, now has the worst strike rate because he has scored only three centuries in the last five years,"
For the record, Kohli’s 30th Test ton came during the Perth Test against Australia nearly a year and a half later after scoring his 29th. Even former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has ignored Kohli while naming the best batter of the modern era.
Ponting said that Smith has to be the best batter of this era after his ton in Galle. The 50-year-old was quoted by Sydney Morning Herald as saying "Is he the best player of his generation? It's hard to argue against it. Joe Root is the other one now, and [Kane] Williamson's record is outstanding as well. Joe's last couple of years have elevated him right back up there, I think”
The former Australian skipper also added “Five or six years ago, when this big four emerged, with Virat Kohli being one of those as well, Joe was probably down near the bottom part of that because he hadn't made the hundreds the other guys had made, but he's made 19 hundreds in the past four years,"