GREATER NOIDA: It was first coined by the legendary Martin Crowe in one of his articles a decade back. The term ‘Fab Four’ was a collective expression for four of the best “young Test batters” – Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Joe Root and Kane Williamson – of that time.
The four have gone on to captivate the cricketing world with their exceptional skill and batting prowess in the last 10 years.Crowe had, in fact, drawn their comparison to The Beatles in his article.
Interestingly, in the last decade, at varying time points, all four have also captained their respective sides in international cricket.
As the four enter the final phase of their careers, the debate still rages on as to who is the best among them with the scales tilting towards all four of them at different points. Recently, Australian women’s cricket team’s wicketkeeper-batter Alyssa Healy ranked the four, and placed Williamson on the No. 1 spot, while consigning Kohli to fourth.
In the last five years, Williamson and Root have been in sparkling form in Test cricket, while Smith and Kohli have struggled to even come close to their golden years in the red-ball format, which was between 2014-19.
Root’s recent twin hundreds against Sri Lanka at Lord’s last week underscored his appetite for runs. Root’s twin hundreds, in fact, are as many as Kohli’s in the Test arena in the entire period from 2020-24.
In this period, Root has 17 Test centuries to his name. While Williamson has 11 hundreds to his credit, the former New Zealand Test captain has played much less than Root in the period between 2020-24. Williamson’s average in this period is 67.54.
As Williamson himself continues to scale new heights, the affable New Zealander lauded Root for his “consistent performances” in Test cricket. Speaking before the one-off Test against Afghanistan here, Williamson said, “I am a big fan of him (Root).”
“He has been phenomenal. He has been something else for a long period of time. Obviously, there is a lot of attention on what he might be able to achieve in the years to come. It’s just incredible that the kind of conversion (from fifties to hundreds) he has been able to achieve, can even be had,” Williamson added, while referring to talks from the cricketing fraternity that Root is in a position to break Sachin Tendulkar‘s Test record for most centuries as well as runs.
Besides his high praise for Root, Williamson also applauded the other “two members” of Fab Four. “I enjoy watching Virat Kohli, Steve Smith bat in Test cricket. It’s just amazing how they have sort of moved the game forward in a big way,” Williamson said.
Williamson, however, downplayed the discussions about whether performances from Kohli, Smith and Root serve as a motivation for him to push harder. “Not really! Playing for my country, for my team, makes me perform on the field,” said the 34-year-old.
New Zealand, the champions of the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC), will be playing six Tests in the next two months in the sub-continent. Following the one-off game against Afghanistan, New Zealand will travel to Sri Lanka for a two-Test series from September 16-30. Subsequently, they will return to India to face Rohit Sharma‘s team in a three-Test series from October 16 to November 5.
“In some ways, it’s like a tournament sport, even though it’s over a long period of time in the World Test Championship. Naturally, having six Test matches together is a big part of our calendar. It’s one that we are very excited about,” said Williamson.