Hobbs, Bradman, Sobers, Tendulkar: Where does Steve Smith fit in among the greatest of all time?

Cricket conversations usually steer clear of Don Bradman and his numbers. Batsmen in every generation go through stellar phases, establishing themselves above their peers, but they’re hardly ever compared to the great Australian. Several have even earned the tag of the ‘best ever’ or the ‘greatest’, but that’s after keeping the Don and his feats aside.

However, the past month or so has seen Bradman’s name come up on more occasions than it usually does. Obviously, his numbers haven’t been surpassed but they’ve been forced into consideration. And the reason for that is the genius of another Australian.

Steve Smith finished the 2019 Ashes with 774 runs. This, despite walking out to bat only seven of the ten times Australia did. He scored 35.5% of his team’s runs through the five matches. These are astonishing numbers by any standard and thus, brought attention to Bradman’s statistics.

As one would expect, though, Smith’s aggregate of runs came short of Bradman’s best in a five-Test series. But the fact that the two’s averages in their finest series are so close is telling.

Here’s a look at the most runs scored by a batsman in a series:

Note: Swipe/scroll horizontally on the tables to view all columns

As mentioned above, Smith’s total in the recently-concluded Ashes doesn’t rank too high in the all-time list for most runs in a series, but what’s impressive is his average of 110.57 despite not remaining unbeaten even once.

It isn’t just his run in the Ashes that has compelled people to pause and think of his place among the game’s greatest, Smith has been in a league of his own for a while now. He’s the highest run-scorer in Tests this year despite not playing a single game for the first seven months. And it’s jaw-dropping consistency such as this that has pushed his numbers considerably higher than his peers. He has by far the highest average among active players who have scored 2000 runs.

To put Smith’s statistics in perspective, he has the second-highest average among all batsmen who’ve played a minimum of 30 Test matches. So it isn’t just the likes of Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson who’re struggling to catch up with him, the Australian is only second to Bradman in the all-time list.

Now, let’s take a closer look at Smith’s impact on the game and on the Australian team. The right-hander scores a significantly high percentage of his team’s total runs. Since making his Test debut in 2010, he has scored 19.02% percent of Australia’s total runs in the longest format.

To understand just how high this number is, here’s a look at how the five highest run-scorers among active cricketers, apart from Smith, have contributed for their countries.

And once again, it isn’t just his contemporaries who are falling behind him, Smith has a higher percentage than even the top five run-scorers in Test cricket.

As one can see in the above table, Smith is nearly 5% ahead of the great Ricky Ponting when it comes to contribution in the team’s total.

And yes, Smith is right there in the top three when it comes to the overall highest percentage of team runs scored by a player. Only Bradman, who has a ridiculously high 25.33%, and Brian Lara are ahead of Smith in the all-time list. It is also interesting to note how high Sunil Gavaskar and Kumar Sangakkara’s percentages are. They’re well ahead of the greats of the past few decades.

Lastly, let’s take a look at how Smith’s excellence in this decade compares with that of the dominance by players in the past. In the table below, we compare batsmen with the highest average, who have scored a minimum of 2000 runs, in each decade since 1910.

As one can see, if we put Bradman’s numbers from the 1930s aside, Smith only has Jack Hobbs ahead of him on this list. But the great Englishman played just 21 Tests in the 1910s, less than one-third of the amount Smith has played in this decade and yet, the Australian’s average is just a little behind his.

An honourary mention must also be given to Jacques Kallis. Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower has the highest average among batsmen who scored a minimum of 2000 runs in the 2000s, but it was Kallis who was the standout batsman of that decade. The South African played 99 Tests in that period and scored 8428 runs at an average of 58.93.

At the end, it’s safe to say that Smith is well on his way to establishing his name among the greatest of the game. He’s been around for nearly a decade now so we know for sure that his consistency isn’t an aberration. The 30-year-old may not be too big a force to reckon with in white-ball cricket, but he can achieve remarkable feats if he keeps going at this rate in the longest format. While discussing the best batsmen, we may just end up putting Smith’s numbers aside along with Bradman’s.

All statistics courtesy ESPNCricinfo Statsguru