Tim Southee boldly declares Kane Williamson superior to Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Joe Root

The veteran New Zealand National Cricket Team pacer Tim Southee recently picked the best batter among the Fab Four, which includes Kane Williamson, Virat Kohli, Joe Root and Steve Smith.

All the Fab Four batters have dominated the world of cricket for the last decade, and recently, there has been a lot of debate about who is the best batter among Smith, Kohli, Root, and Williamson.

Numbers-wise, Virat Kohli is way ahead of his competition in the white-ball formats, but in red-ball cricket, Root, Williamson, and Smith have a better average than the Indian batting maestro.

Kohli has scored over 13000 runs in ODIs and over 4000 runs in T20Is while Smith, Root, and Williamson are yet to touch the 7000-run mark in ODIs and 3000-run mark in T20Is. In Test cricket, all the batters have scored over 8000 runs, with Root being at the top as he has scored over 12000 runs.

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Meanwhile, on Sunday, Kiwi star Tim Southee weighed in on the Fab Four debate and ranked Kane Williamson superior to the likes of Smith, Root, and Kohli.

“I have probably bowled the most to Kane in the nets. It is always a tough challenge for us as bowlers to be tested by one of the best in the world in the nets day in day out. To see Kane do it first-hand has been amazing to watch. The others are phenomenal as well. There is a reason why they are called the Fab Four,” Tim Southee said on the eve of New Zealand’s one-off Test against Afghanistan, as quoted by the Indian Express.

Here's the statistical comparison of the Fab Four:

Afghanistan has been an improving side for a number of years - Tim Southee

New Zealand are all set for a big Test season as they are set to play three matches against India after the one-off Test against Afghanistan. Also, they will host England for a Test series.

Talking about this, Tim Southee said that the upcoming Test matches are a big challenge for them and they need to properly manage the multi-format cricketers. Tim Southee said:

"It is a challenge for every side. For players playing multi formats you have to balance the chopping and changing nature of busy schedules, so we haven't played Test cricket for a while, we are so excited and looking forward to getting there out playing Test cricket.

"For us as a side to play nine Test matches in a short space of time is exciting and something we don't usually get."

While talking about Afghanistan, the team that crushed the Black Caps in the recent T20 World Cup 2024, Tim Southee said that they always come up with a fight and have improved a lot. Tim Southee said:

"Afghanistan has been an improving side for a number of years and anytime you come up against them, you know you are in for a fight, especially in these conditions. We saw in the T20 World Cup how dangerous a side they can be.

"They have gotten a lot of confidence from the success that they had not only in the T20 World Cup but the one-day World Cup last year in India and they are still new to the Test format, but I am sure this is a format they will want to keep growing as well, like they have done in the other two formats."

Meanwhile, the one-off Test between New Zealand and Afghanistan will be played at the Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground in Greater Noida from September 09 to 13.

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