The Greats Who Have England On Toast...

Richard Edwards hails the presence of the game’s finest batsmen and the damage they can inflict on any attack

- Richard Edwards

 By definition, bowling at the best batsmen in the world is nopicnic. ‘The best’moniker is a bit of a giveaway, after all.

There does, though, remain a nagging suspicion that England struggle more than most when it comes to tackling the finest batsmen in the world game – a suspicion reinforced by Steve Smith’s stunning performances during this Ashes series.

The ICC announced earlier this week that Smith was now as close to ‘The Don’ as any other batsman in history, something that would have been unthinkable when the prolific ‘Aussie fidget’ made his Ashes debut in Perth back in December 2010.

So far in this series, Smith has looked virtually undismissable, with the notable exception of the Adelaide Test when, at times against the swinging ball, he resembled a cat on a hot tin roof rather than the second-best batsman of all-time.

Garry Sobers, Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Allan Border, Brian Lara and, latterly, Smith and Virat Kohli have all made hay against England’s bowlers in the past, averaging more against a helpless attack than any other opposition.

Both Smith and Kohli have scored double hundreds in series victories over England in the past 12 months, with the Indian and Australian skippers filling their boots against an attack that looked to have no answer to their brilliance.