NEW DELHI: Steve Smith became the 15th player in history and the fourth Australian to reach 10,000 Test runs on Wednesday, further solidifying his stature in the cricketing world. The 35-year-old stand-in captain accomplished the milestone with a single off Prabath Jayasuriya in Galle during the first morning of the opening Test against Sri Lanka, joining Ricky Ponting, Allan Border, and Steve Waugh in an elite list led by India’s Sachin Tendulkar.

However, the milestone reignited a long-standing debate about the best Test batter of this generation, with former Australian captain Ponting highlighting Smith, Joe Root, and Kane Williamson as the top contenders – conspicuously leaving out India’s Virat Kohli from the conversation.
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“Is he [Smith] the best player of his generation? It’s hard to argue against it,” Ponting said on Seven. “Joe Root is the other one now and [Kane] Williamson’s record is outstanding as well. Joe’s last couple of years have elevated him right back up there, I think.”
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Ponting pointed out that while the cricketing world once saw the “big four” – Smith, Root, Williamson, and Kohli – as equals, Root’s resurgence had changed the equation. “Five or six years ago when this big four emerged, with [Virat] Kohli being one of those as well, Joe was probably down near the bottom part of that because he hadn’t made the hundreds the other guys had made, but he’s made 19 hundreds in the past four years.”

He emphasised the subjectivity of the debate, acknowledging national biases: “If you asked an Englishman, they’d say Joe Root, if you asked an Aussie, they’d say Steve Smith, and if you asked a Kiwi, they’d say Kane Williamson. So it’s a tough one, but on the numbers themselves, it’s pretty hard to argue against what he’s done.”
Smith’s achievement was particularly remarkable considering his ability to score across all conditions. Nearly half of his runs have come overseas at an average exceeding 50 – putting him in the same class as Ponting (46.40 overseas), Border (56.47), and Waugh (55.5).
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Ponting also reflected on Smith’s recent form, particularly his performances against India during the Australian summer. “It had been a leanish patch for him before the summer, but the two hundreds that he made in the summer, I thought he showed—particularly in Melbourne—that innings was as good as I’ve seen him bat in a long time,” Ponting said. “So it’s still there if he wants it to be.”
While Smith’s milestone is a testament to his dominance in Test cricket, the debate over the best batter of this generation continues – with Kohli’s absence from Ponting’s remarks raising eyebrows in the cricketing world.