Joe Root and Steve Smith: A comparative portrait of Test greatness

For more than a decade, Steve Smith and Joe Root haven’t just been part of Test cricket; they’ve defined batting standards. Separated by geography and tradition, shaped by contrasting techniques, yet bound together by the oldest rivalry in the history of the sport - The Ashes.

Despite their shared dominance of Test cricket, Smith and Root emerged from starkly unalike beginnings. Root was identified young, nurtured as a specialist batter, and afforded the luxury of time. Smith burst onto the scene as a bowling all-rounder, valued first for his leg-spin, his batting initially peripheral, until it became impossible to look beyond.

Extraordinary stats and unforgettable peaks define both careers. To grasp who has left the deeper imprint on Test cricket, one must move beyond the scorebook and into the realm of context, conditions, and the crucible of pressure.

1. Root and Smith after 122 Tests: A fair comparison

While Root has played 162 Tests in his career, Smith has only featured in 122. As Smith’s career may not span as many Tests as Root’s, the only truly fair comparison is to review Root’s record after 122 matches.

Steve Smith's record

Joe Root's record

2. Runs in winning causes: A currency that never depreciates

Runs in Test cricket are hard to come by; runs that decide the outcome of matches are even harder. Legends like Root and Smith etch their names by match-winning contributions: by the sheer weight of runs that take their teams over the line.

Steve Smith's record in winning causes

Joe Root's record in winning causes

3. Fourth innings pressure: The ultimate test of skill and nerve

The fourth innings is where a batter faces their toughest challenge. Cracks start widening, the pitch starts turning square, the ball starts misbehaving, and the fielding side tightens the noose. Therefore, every run scored in the fourth innings is worth its weight in gold.

Joe Root: Fourth innings Test record

Steve Smith: Fourth innings Test record

4. Record vs the leading wicket-takers of their era

Greatness isn’t measured against ordinary bowlers; it’s forged in battles with the very best. Both Root and Smith have faced the game’s best bowlers, whose names top the wickets tally and define their era.

Steve Smith's head-to-head record vs the top 10 leading wicket-takers of his era

Joe Root's head-to-head record vs the top 10 leading wicket-takers of his era

Note: We’ve selected the bowlers who have topped the Test wicket charts since Joe Root’s red-ball debut. Smith’s debut isn’t used as the cut-off, as Root wasn’t playing then. This approach ensures we assess only those bowlers who defined the era shared by both batters.

5. Adapt and deliver: A stern challenge of batting out of position

A batter's versatility is put to a stern test when they are put out of their cocoon and made to bat out of position. Both Root and Smith have batted out of position several times, with Smith opting to open after David Warner's retirement and retracting to his preferred slot.

Both batters boast exceptional records at number four, but the real insight lies in how each has performed when pushed out of their preferred position

Joe Root - Test record by batting position

6. Bearing the badge: Delivering runs under leadership pressure

Captaincy carries its own pressures. Rallying the team, withstanding media scrutiny, taking ownership of a decision that was taken collectively by the team management, and then producing the runs every time you go out to bat.

Very few players manage to keep churning out the runs after taking up the leadership role, and therefore, it can be a marker to judge how Root and Smith responded with the bat with the captain's armband on.

Joe Root's batting numbers as Test captain

Steve Smith's batting numbers as Test captain

7. Overseas performance: The hallmark of greatness

While runs at home are a given, it is overseas, in the most hostile conditions, that only a rare few truly flourish. Be it Smith’s 109 that sealed the Pune Test in 2017 or Root’s 218 that led England to a rare triumph in Chennai in 2021, both batters have underlined their excellence away from home.

Joe Root's away record in Tests

Steve Smith's away record in Tests

8. Consistency

What truly separates Root and Smith from the rest of their generation is not just the volume of runs they’ve accumulated, but the relentless consistency with which they’ve produced them.

Note: This stat was churned out by @TheStatsKid1523 on X

9. Weight of the batting order: Context that shapes legacy

Since Alastair Cook’s retirement in 2018, Root has almost single-handedly carried England's batting on his shoulders. For years, he has walked in at 20/2 or 30/3, as has been the case in the ongoing Ashes, forced into steering the ship away from rocky waters to safer shores. Though he now has Harry Brook and Ben Duckett to bat around him, a pillar of such strength was missing in the pre-Bazball era.

Smith’s career has been slightly different. Across his peak years, he has been surrounded by a reliable, productive batting core. From Warner’s aggression, Usman Khawaja’s calm, Marnus Labuschagne’s consistency, Travis Head’s blitzkrieg, to Michael Clarke's class. 

Root and Smith have reshaped modern-day Test cricket. While Root is the embodiment of the textbook batter, Smith has carved out his own unorthodox blueprint for success. Their era will go down as one of the most compelling chapters in Test cricket’s history, a time when two contrasting artists pursued greatness with the same unwavering consistency and ambition.