Just ahead of India – Australia clash, the Australia captain, Aaron Finch started playing the mind games. He picked Steve Smith as the best batsman ahead of Virat Kohli, despite the latter has a better record in ODI and T20I.
“Steve is the best batter in the world in my opinion over all three forms of the game,” said Finch.
| Smith v Kohli (in limited over cricket) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test runs | Test average | ODI runs | ODI average | T20I runs | T20I average | |
| Smith | 6199 | 61.37 | 3522 | 41.92 | 431 | 21.55 |
| Kohli | 6613 | 53.76 | 10861 | 59.34 | 2263 | 50.28 |
Smith (61.37) is better against Kohli (53.76) only in Tests.
Finch is happy to have both Smith and Warner back in the squad and performing well for the team.
“To have them back is great for the side and our batting, It’s a great help for me as a leader, in terms of tactics out on the field,” said Finch.
On Warner, he added: “David is so destructive at the top of the order, his record shows how destructive he is.”
Warner hit an unbeaten 89 against Afghanistan, while Smith scored 73 against West Indies.
Australia has won 12 games in a row, which boosted their confidence immensely, “I think winning the last three games is really important for us in India, to one, get some self-belief that we can beat this Indian side in their home conditions,” said Finch.