Aussie Star Names "Fab 5" Test Batters, Rates Virat Kohli Above Steven Smith, Babar Azam

Former Australian star all-rounder Shane Watson has rated the "fab 5"  batters in world cricket right now in cricket's longest format. While the official ICC rankings take into account the performance of players in matches played in a particular time period and ranks them accordingly, there is always an unofficial list of batters, who have dominated the game over a period of time.

Test cricket has seen the likes of Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Joe Root and Kane Williamson dominate the last decade and Pakistan's captain and premier batter Babar Azam is slowly but surely entering the same league as the other four.

Watson named all these five batters in his list while speaking on ICC Review, but ranked Virat Kohli at the top, despite the fact that the former India captain has failed to score a century in international cricket since November 2019.

"In Test match cricket, I am always going to say Virat Kohli," Watson said, when asked by Isa Guha who he thought is the best Test batter in the world. 

"It's nearly superhuman, what he is able to do because he has such high intensity every time he goes out to play," Watson said about Kohli

The Indian run machine Kohli is only rated 10^th on the ICC Men's Test batter rankings currently.

He placed Babar Azam in the second spot and said, "Babar Azam is playing incredibly well," Watson noted. [It's great] to be able to see how he has adapted his game to really move his game to Test cricket as well. Babar Azam would probably be No.2 at the moment."

Watson put his compatriot Smith in the third spot and said that the Aussie master has started to "come off".

"Steve Smith has just started to come off a little bit," Watson added. 

"It looks like Smith has really started to play for time a little bit more and is not putting as much pressure on the bowlers as he did when was at his absolute best. For me, Steve has dropped down that list a little bit," he said.

Watson put New Zealand captain Williamson on the fourth spot and Joe Root on the fifth.

Topics mentioned in this article

Virat Kohli Steven Smith Babar Azam Kane Williamson Joe Root Shane Watson Cricket