Jon Price one of the worlds most renowned sports bettors has tipped his hat to let the minority of Cricket Bettors that he has his eye on the popular Indian sport. With over 1 million bettors vying to make money off of cricket it is hard to distinguish and to turn a big profit because certain sportsbooks limit the amount you can wager on a cricket matchup.

Soon after England secured the Ashes to seal their decade long dominance over Australia at home, they were met with some more positive news.

Joe Root was the new world number 1 ranked test batsman, overtaking AB De Villiers.

Root has been magnificent for England in both limited overs and tests since his debut about two and a half years ago. So much so, that he is now not only England's most reliable batsman but among the best in the world.

We have seen a number of great batsmen in test cricket. Each decade has provided us with some of the game's greats like Border, Gavaskar, Miandad, and Richards in the 80s; Waugh, Sachin, Lara, and Inzamam in the 90s, Ponting, Dravid, Sangakkara, and Kallis during the first decade of the new century; and also Younis Khan, De Villiers, Amla, Clarke, Cook, and KP over the past decade.

Similarly, the past 5 years has seen the rise of a new generation of batsmen.

Like Joe Root for England, there have been a few others who have emerged to become their team's most reliable batsmen in the recent few years.

There has been Virat Kohli for India, Steven Smith for Australia, Azhar Ali for Pakistan, Kane Williamson for New Zealand, and Angelo Matthews for Sri Lanka.

Each one of them has performed at an exceptional level in international cricket and has fast become the mainstay of their respective batting line up. Their success has also been recognized with all of them, barring Root, captaining their national side in at least one format (Kane Williamson as a stand in).

There is no doubt in my mind that these are the next set of batting greats that will shine for the next 7-10 years in test cricket. These are the names that will dominate batting charts going forward.

But who among them is the best out of the lot?

Like Border and Gavaskar, Sachin and Lara, Ponting and Kallis, and Sangakkara and Younis were the best during their respective decades, which two out of the current lot are the best right now?

Here's a look at some numbers.

(For the purpose of this analysis, only those batsmen who have played at least 30 tests and made their debut since July 2009 have been assessed)

Leading Averages

It is no surprise that each one of the above mentioned batsmen are among those with the current highest test averages, with Root and Smith right at the top.


Most Frequent Century Makers

Four of these batsmen have scored at least 10 test centuries already, but no one scores them more often than Virat Kohli who scores a ton after every 5 innings or so.


Biggest Match Winners

The most prominent sign of great test batsmen is how often they produce match winnings knocks. Most batsmen can score a lot of runs, but scoring meaningful runs that help win matches is what makes these batsmen great.

Warner and Azhar have been involved in most test wins among these batsmen; both of them are the leading run scorers in test wins as well; Root, Smith, and Williamson have exceptional averages in test wins; while Warner and Smith have the most centuries in test wins.


If it doesn't get better for India, Kohli would well become the Tendulkar of his generation. Lots of runs and centuries, but not enough match winning ones.

Best Away from Home

Everyone knows that it is much easier to bat at home than in foreign conditions. In this regard, Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq must be given a lot more credit than the other batsmen considering that they have not played a single test at home.

Having said that, here's how these batsmen perform in foreign locations.

Foreign locations have been determined as outside Indian subcontinent and UAE for Azhar, Asad, Kohli, Matthews; outside Australia and South Africa for Warner and Smith; outside England and New Zealand for Root, Williamson and Watling; outside West Indies for Bravo.


Only Bravo and Root average above 50 in foreign conditions; while Kohli's and Williamson's century hitting ability in foreign conditions is exceptional. Bravo's is a rare case; he averages more away from home than he does at home, and 5 of his 6 test centuries have also come away from home.

The rest of the batsmen seem to have decent records away from home, except for Warner, Azhar, and Asad - while away. they are not even half the batsmen that they are at home.

While all these batsmen are special in their own way, there are only two names that are repeatedly at the top of the pile in the tables above.

Joe Root and Steven Smith.

They have the best average among these batsmen, they score test centuries as frequently as the greats did, they are the leading performers in test match wins, and they have outstanding away records.

The other 8 batsmen have a lot of catching up to do.

Warner, Azhar, and Asad need to significantly improve their away records, while Kohli has to put in more match winning performances. Williamson is not far behind Root and Smith, however to be considered one of the greats he needs to push his average closer to that 50 mark; same goes for Bravo and Watling. As for Mathews; he has established himself as the premier Sri Lankan batsman following the retirements of Sangakkara and Jayawardene. However, to be one of the greats he needs more test centuries and improved performances outside the subcontinent.

While Root and Smith are ahead of the rest right now, all these batsmen are 30 or under, which means their best years are still ahead of them.

There is a lot more for all of them to achieve. With the kind of start they have had to their test careers, they are well placed to reach even greater heights to be considered among the best in the world to ever play the game.

The last time Pakistan won the Test, ODI, and T20I series on the same tour was during the 2011-12 season when they defeated Sri Lanka in the UAE, and then Zimbabwe and Bangladesh on tour. It took four years for Pakistan to repeat the feat and notch up a rare successful tour of Sri Lanka, after 9 years, winning a total of 7 international games - 2 Tests, 3 ODIs, and 2 T20Is.

Another rare achievement for Pakistan was winning the three bilateral series under different captains. Pakistan is not accustomed to having different captains for different formats, yet it seemed to be no hindrance to team spirit as Misbah, Azhar Ali, and Afridi led Pakistan's outfits to historical wins across the three formats in Sri Lanka.

One more interesting fact from this tour is that Pakistan sealed each series with a SIX! Misbah launched Jehan Mubarak over long on to complete Pakistan's record chase in the 3rd test; Shoaib Malik hoicked Sriwardana over midwicket in the 4th ODI to take Pakistan to an unassailable 3-1 lead in the ODI series; Imad Wasim smashed Binura Fernando over long on to complete Pakistan's dramatic 1 wicket win in the second T20I.

I wonder if that has ever happened before.

I also wonder when was the last time that Pakistan's batting, bowling, and fielding all fired collectively in a series. Probably not since the 1992 World Cup Final! ;)

THE FIELDING

Before coming to Pakistan's batting and bowling, their fielding deserves a mention.

The way the Pakistanis picked up their fielding on this tour was a revelation. Never before has Pakistan looked like the better fielding unit in any series. Runs were defended and catches were taken, with some so good that it was hard to believe that it was a Pakistani fielder athletically diving across the turf and getting his hands wrapped around the ball.

It was a sight!

Anwar Ali and Mohammad Rizwan have shown that they right up their with the best fielders in the world at the moment.

THE BATTING

The batting on this tour also shone like it hasn't in the recent past.

There was the record chase in the 3rd test; a 300+ total in the 3rd ODI; successful chases of 250+ in the 1st and 4th ODIs; a 175 run total in the 1st T20I; and a record chase of a 170+ target in the 2nd T20I.

Where there was a classic match winning inning from the experienced Younis Khan in the 3rd test, there was also a maiden century in a match winning cause from a novice like Shan Masood. Where there was strengthening of test credentials by Azhar Ali with yet another test hundred, there were monumental knocks by Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed that won Pakistan a match after a familiar batting collapse.

ODI openers, Azhar Ali and Ahmed Shehzad, fired more often than not; and when they didn't the middle order comprising Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed, and Mohammad Rizwan cruised the ship comfortably.

Anwar Ali finally came of age and showed that he has the abilities of being an allrounder in both ODIs and the T20s. Shoaib Malik ensured that his comeback was not a flash in the pan and made his presence count in the middle order in every innings in the ODIs and T20s. Umar Akmal also repaid the faith his T20 captain had in him by showing the world his range of shots and ability in the 1st T20I. Imad Wasim also displayed allround abilities.

And then there was Shahid Afridi, doubted by so many, who led the charge in the second T20 and showed the world that he still has it in him to smash the ball to all parts of the park.

THE BOWLING

While Yasir Shah single handedly destroyed Sri Lanka in the Tests and mesmerized viewers by bringing back the shining art of leg spin to Pakistan's test ranks after half a decade, Imran Khan and Rahat Ali also produced some awe inspiring spells.

Rahat Ali translated his test success to ODIs by displaying wicket taking ability, while Anwar Ali produced economical spells with the new ball and also picked up wickets, which he was failing to do in the past. Imad Wasim showed composure with his left arm spin and was the most difficult bowler to get away.

Both Anwar and Imad are valuable additions to Pakistan's limited overs attack, particularly because of their ability to strengthen the lower order batting.

*               *               *

Rarely does a tour end with Pakistan achieving all the goals it set out to achieve.

Misbah wanted a test series win in Sri Lanka to take Pakistan back to number 3. Azhar wanted an ODI series win to ensure Pakistan a place in the Champions Trophy. He also stated that Pakistan would sweep Sri Lanka 2-0 in the T20s with Afridi wanting a strong showing leading up to his swansong in India next year.

There is much to rejoice about Pakistan's performance on this tour to Sri Lanka. It has been one of their most successful tours in recent history. Their Test and T20 performances resulted in a rise in the rankings where Pakistan now sit pretty at number 3 in both formats, while their ODI performance ensured a place in the Champions Trophy.

Just before the Ashes series got underway, I felt that England stood no chance. I thought Australia will sweep the series and finally win an Ashes series in England, which they haven't done since 2001. Yes, Steve Waugh was captaining Australia the last time they won an Ashes series in England!

It has been 15 years and this had to be Australia's best chance given England's recent torrid run and Australia's rise.

But then at Cardiff, we witnessed England rise to the challenge and beat Australia by a whopping 169 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the series.

What that also did was reopen some old wounds for Australia. They were reminded that prior to the Cardiff test, they had won only 3 out of their previous 17 tests in England and had lost 8 of them. After the first test of this Ashes series, that record looks like:

Played 18 Won 3 Lost 9.

For a team that is ranked number 2 in the world test rankings, that is quite sad really.

Needless to say, I was quite surprised that it was England who took the lead after the first test.

It wasn't long before we were back to business as usual with Australia bouncing back at Lord's and stamping their authority all over England with a massive 405 run win in the second Ashes test. It was almost as if the Aussies wanted to punish England for winning the first test.

After such a dominating performance, I was sure that the rest of the series would be a cakewalk for Australia.

How wrong was I!

The third test saw Australia in tatters and so unlike their dominant self, which we had seen in the second test.

England won comfortably by 8 wickets to take a 2-1 lead.

England surprised, not once but twice during this Ashes series and they now look like firm favorites to regain the Ashes and continue their decade long dominance over Australia at home.

However, I will run shy of expecting that considering how wrong I have been with all the results so far. If I were using William Hill cricket betting during the Ashes, I would have lost quite some money so far.

The series has swung both ways right now, and there is every chance that Australia will bounce back once again to set up a thrilling finale at the Oval. That will be quite some game if we witness an Australia win at Nottingham next week.
With James Andersen most likely missing out on the 4th test, it will probably be Australia's best chance to level series. However, Steven Finn's comeback match showed that he could potentially shoulder the responsibility in Andersen's absence. Broad has also been good with the ball for England.

Both teams have failed to find consistent performances with the bat. Only Rogers and Smith from Australia, and Root and Bell from England have looked like in some kind of form, with all other batsmen showing only flashes of brilliance.

There is no doubt that the last 2 tests will be hard fought and the Ashes is set up for an exciting finish, unlike the previous one sided series the two teams have played.

I wouldn't miss these two tests for anything; and neither should you!