Naman Agarwal delves into the changing fortunes of the Fab Four in Test cricket.

December 2018. The grand Optus Stadium in Perth is hosting its first Test match. India are on the mat at 8-2. Out struts Virat Kohli with an air of confidence that you’d normally associate with one of the best batters in the world. Oh wait, he is one of the best batters in the world. Unsurprisingly, he scores a century and celebrates with a ‘my-bat-does-all-the-talking’ gesture.

After that game, his Test career runs stand at 6508. Exactly the same as Joe Root at that point in time. Steve Smith is at 6,199 runs and Kane Williamson is at 5815.

By that time, the end of 2018 that is, the Fab Four has been in existence for the last four years, a term coined by the late Martin Crowe in 2014 to earmark four potential batting superstars of the future. From friend groups to big media houses, everyone is constantly tracking the movements of this Fab 4 on the ladder of Test cricket. There are wide-ranging debates with different caveats and filters thrown in to conveniently reach the conclusion that one wants. However, there is somewhat of an acceptance that Kohli and Smith are slightly ahead of Root and Williamson.

Fast forward to 2023, and a lot has changed. Root has unlocked a new level, Bazballing his way through Test cricket one reverse-scoop after the other. Williamson is missing more games than he is playing, but when he is playing, he is scoring big, daddy hundreds. Smith, while still producing a decent volume of runs, has fallen down to more mortal levels of scoring from his previously robotic standards, and Kohli, well, Kohli has had a steep and long decline, nearly as steep and long as his rise to the top was in Test cricket.

Joe Root

The coronavirus pandemic proved to be the inflection point in the Test careers of the Fab 4. Since cricket began post-pandemic in 2020, Root has been head and shoulders above all other batters in terms of run-scoring in Test cricket. He has scored more than 3,500 runs in this period with the next highest scorer being Marnus Labuschagne with just over 2,000 runs.

Yes, England play the most number of Test matches, but Root's runs have come at an average of 56.65 and if that is not good enough, they have come at a strike rate of 61.13. He has found a new gear in his batting.

The main complaint with Root of the past was that his conversion rate was poor. Before the break in cricket due to the pandemic, Root had 48 fifties and just 17 hundreds in Tests. That is, he used to get to 100 every 3.82 times he crossed 50. That was by far the worst conversion rate among the Fab 4. Kohli's conversion rate at that point was the best: a hundred for every 1.81 times he crossed fifty.

Since the pandemic, Root has corrected that flaw and how. He has crossed fifty 23 times in this period and has gone to score a century on 13 of those occasions. That is equal to the number of centuries the rest of the Fab 4 combined have scored in this period.

Kane Williamson

If Root has found a different gear, Williamson has touched stratospheric levels with his run-scoring since the pandemic. He has played only 14 Tests since July 2020, missing out on as many as eight games due to injuries. But when he has played, he has prospered.

1,648 runs in 24 innings at an average of 78.47 - this is what Williamson has managed in this period. He has crossed 50 eight times. On seven of those occasions, he has gone on to make a hundred, and on four of those occasions, he has gone on to cross 200.

One of the reasons why Williamson was rarely considered in the top two among the Fab 4 was his relatively poor overseas record against tougher opponents. He averaged 35 or less in India, Sri Lanka, England, and South Africa. None of the other members of the Fab 4 averaged less than 40 in more than three overseas countries (excluding West Indies, Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh).

Since the pandemic, Williamson has played half of his 14 Test matches at home and the other half away. While his overseas record hasn't improved dramatically, his home record has. He averages 111.80 at home in this period and 48.18 outside. Unfortunately, recurring injuries have meant that he has not been able to utilise the peak of his powers as much as he would have liked. However, the sheer volume of his scoring has definitely improved his standing among the Fab 4.

Steve Smith

Smith used to be a freak. He still is by the way of his batting mannerisms, but if you looked at plain numbers, you would see 7,227 runs at an average of 62.84 before the pandemic struck. No one in the history of Test cricket had more runs than him at a higher average at that point. After Don Bradman, he was the only one with more than 5,000 runs and an average above 60 in Test matches.

This even included the one-year period where Smith was banned from international cricket due to the infamous ball-tampering saga. He made a triumphant comeback from that in the 2019 Ashes and struck two back-to-back centuries in one of the most memorable performances in Ashes history.

However, since the pandemic, his returns have dropped a fair bit. He has still scored 1,742 runs in 25 matches at an average of 48.38 - a more than decent record, but let's be real, this is not what you expect of Steve Smith in Test cricket.

Virat Kohli

Remember the 'my-bat-does-all-the-talking' celebration from above? That century by Kohli in Perth in 2018 is still his last overseas Test century. He scored two more after that in India before the pandemic, before his fortunes completely nose-dived.

Since the resumption of international cricket in July 2020, Kohli has scored just 1,239 runs from 23 Test matches at an average of 31.76, with only one three-digit score. Outside of India, that average falls down to 29.68.

Kohli's peak was ridiculous. Between 2016-2019, he scored 4,208 runs in 43 Tests at an average of 66.79 with 16 centuries and ten half-centuries. It is perhaps this peak that has made sure that he hasn't been dropped from the Test team.

He has made a sparkling return to top form in limited-overs cricket recently. However, apart from his century against Australia on the flat track of Ahmedabad, he has nothing to show in Test cricket in the last couple of years. Both Kohli and Test cricket would like that to change soon.

The hierarchy of the Fab 4 has forever fluctuated. But it has rarely been in the state it is now. Root is the No.1 ranked Test batter in the world. Williamson is averaging nearly 80 in the last three years, while Smith and Kohli have dropped off by varying degrees.

Root and Williamson are 32 and have a couple of years over Smith and Kohli. Perhaps that has played a part in the trajectories they have had. Perhaps Root and Williamson will suffer similar downturns as the other two as they get older. Whatever happens, the Fab 4 has lived up to the expectations of the late Martin Crowe and are at different stages of their careers, no longer competing with each other.

It's like a group of four college friends that have enjoyed some of their best years together, but have now graduated and drifted apart with each going on their respective paths. Everyone likes a reunion and if it happens, it would be great. But it rarely does.

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