Michael Jeh: Handscomb and his je ne sais qoui

Peter Handscomb celebrates his century during the second day-night cricket Test between Australia and Pakistan in Brisbane on December 16, 2016. Pic/AFP

Before Peter Handscomb played his first Test innings, I went out on a limb and predicted a stellar career. I think he will finish as one of the best batsman we've ever seen. Brave call after just three Tests, but I reckon he's got a hint of that je ne sais quoi that defies logical explanation.

Was anyone brave enough to have said that about Steve Smith when he first made his debut as a part-time leggie who batted in the lower order? At the time of writing (end of 2016), Steve Smith is scoring Test runs at a rate bettered only by Don Bradman and George Headley in terms of centuries per innings for anyone who has played the game for an extended period of time. David Warner, like Smith, has just crossed the threshold of seventeen Test centuries in a similar number of Tests, so comparing them is interesting because they have also played together for much of their careers, facing the same bowlers on the same pitches in broadly similar match situations.

I thought it would be interesting to go one step further and look at four other batsmen (Alastair Cook, Joe Root, Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson) who are considered to be the modern benchmark for "future greats". These batsmen provide for meaningful comparisons because they're all playing in the same era against a cadre of bowlers who have probably bowled against most of this illustrious list.

What initially intrigued me was a throwaway line from one of the expert panellists on the ABC radio commentary team about scoring runs away from home and what that might tell us about the true ‘greatness' of these cricketers. My gut feeling was that Warner would have a relatively low average on pitches that deviated sideways (swing, seam or spin) because the nature of his high-octane style may not suit pitches that were un-Australian (or South African). I knew that Kohli's brief record in England was poor but otherwise quite impressive in all conditions but I was curious to see if the unusual technique of Smith would hold up against the much more conventional techniques of Cook, Root and Williamson in foreign conditions.

Judged purely by the stats at roughly the mid-point of their careers (except for Cook, who is possibly nearing the end), at first glance it looks like Smith is the most consistent runscorer in all conditions. This is not intended to belittle any of the other batsmen - let's accept that they are all superb performers, all of them probably destined for greatness. But for the purposes of comparing apples with apples, Smith is the only one averaging 40+ in every country.

Warner is probably the one with the biggest dip in average when batting overseas. No real surprise there. Cook has been remarkably consistent in all countries except in NZ and SA where his average drops to a number that would be perfectly decent for any mere mortal. Statistically, Sri Lanka looks like one of the toughest places to score heavily - any coincidence that as soon as Muttiah Muralitharan retired, the void was filled by the genius of Rangana Herath?

The best places to score runs? Australia (apart from Root) looks to be a prolific destination for most good batsmen. Despite the reputation for steep bounce and pace, it may well be that such conditions suit high-quality players.
When you add in the homogenous nature of drop-in wickets, the proud reputation that Australia had for varied pitches is perhaps less obvious than in decades past. South Africa, in many ways, is also kind to most of these batsmen, except Williamson. One can only imagine though that his soft, silken hands and the ability to play late will see him boost that average up in subsequent tours to the Republic.

I am well aware that it can be perhaps irrelevant to compare cricketers from different generations because so much in the game has changed. But I could not help but indulge my curiosity by comparing the end-of-career snapshots of three modern greats - Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar with our current list. Ponting and Lara have both struggled in India but have decent records on other spin-friendly pitches in Asia. Lara's record against Muralitharan in his prime is astounding. Tendulkar's record is remarkably consistent in all countries - he is the only player on both lists to have averaged 40+ in every single country. Of the current lot, only Smith can make that boast at this stage of his career. And yet, he was the only player to have originally been selected as a bowler who had some potential with the bat!

Michael Jeh is a Brisbane-based former first-class player. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com