Among players currently playing, none has a higher Test batting average than Steve Smith or Joe Root, and in this winter’s Ashes their respective teams’ hopes rest more than ever on their shoulders.

Career record

Smith’s Test average doesn’t just stand out by current standards – his 59.66 is the sixth-best of all time (minimum 20 innings), and his record is all the more impressive when you consider that figure rises to 63.09 if you discount the five matches he played before his reinvention from a leg-spinning all-rounder to a specialist batsman. Root’s average (53.76) does not quite hit the same lofty heights as Smith’s but it surpasses any English batsman of the last 50 years.

Both Smith and Root show themselves to be excellent players of the swinging ball, with records far superior to the average Test batsman against all degrees of movement. Smith’s average of 79 against deliveries that swing more than 2° is particularly impressive, especially given the struggles Australian batsmen have had against the moving ball in recent years. From an English point of view, slightly worrying will be Root’s average against balls which swing less than 1°, which is just 47.76. Australia is the country in which the ball swings least of any in the world.

Consistency v conversion

Root can claim to be slightly more consistent than Smith, reaching 50 in 41 per cent of his innings compared to Smith’s 39 per cent. But the Australian has a far better conversion rate, turning 49 per cent of his fifties into hundreds, while Root’s oft-discussed figure is a low 29 per cent. If he can dominate this series, rather than just consistently contribute as he has done, it will go a long way towards helping England retain the Ashes.

This is an adapted version of CricViz content manager Freddie Wilde’s piece in the first issue of the Wisden Cricket Monthly, which you can buy here for just £1.