Last week we were talking about how Joe Root could probably turn up for the Ashes series with one hand tied behind his back and still outscore his team-mates. Yup, Root aside it is one of the weakest batting line-ups England have ever assembled. And that’s saying something.
But what of Australia? In these pages we have also talked about how their own foibles have been somewhat overshadowed by England’s apparent giant problems. But when it comes to run-getting the Aussies are hardly blessed with Gods with willow in hand.
Indeed, if Root has nothing to beat the same can be said of Steve Smith and David Warner. The pair are almost level-pegging in the heat for top Australia runscorer in the series, which starts at the end of the month.
The rest of their crew reads like a ‘who isn’t’ in terms of international Test batting talent. Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb, Matt Renshaw, Shaun Marsh, Travis Head. Okay, so we actually like Khawaja’s style but the rest are not the sort one would risk their hard-earned on.
Smith and Warner have almost twice as many runs as some of these ‘rivals’ over the last 12 months. Renshaw doesn’t even average 40, Marsh has a mark of 22 and Head hasn’t played. At +500 on the betting lines, Khawaja is the only serious alternative with a mark of 48 (which is impressive) but even then he is not matching the big guns and he has not nailed down his place.
Smith is their outstanding talent, something which has always puzzled us. We don’t quite know how he manages to score so many runs. His technique looks jumpy and he is often on the move at the crease. These are no-nos generally.
But, hell, it works. And to the tune of a whopping 1,271 runs in the last 12 months with an average of 63. He is the No 1-rated batsman in the world ahead of, you’ve guessed it, Root.
Warner is a different style of batsman. He is more correct-looking at the crease. But he is more aggressive and it is his job to unsettle the opposition with an ultra-attacking approach. Most of the time it pays off. He has 1,036 runs at an average of 45.
Smith is +200 with Paddy Power and Warner is the same with Stan James. In between, most other firms make Warner favourite. That’s pretty confusing considering the numbers above, right? Right.
So we would be remiss not to point out that Smith, despite his unattractiveness as a stylist, is clear value here. He won’t have it as easy as Root but not far off folks
Calculators
