Five current Test batsmen who would have succeeded against fast bowlers of the 90s era

4. Steve Smith

Steve Smith is an epitome of what one can do when he or she has a resolute mindset, an unrelenting desire to grit it out and of-course the never-ending penchant for runs. Smith’s technique is the exact opposite of what the coaches would tell an upcoming young kid. Smith defies those textbooks; every time he leaves a ball outside the off-stump by shuffling towards the off-side, he defies unorthodoxy. He defies that old-school technique of always staying on the on-side, that your feet should be parallel, that your bat should always come from the 1st slip region.

Smith, who averages close to 63 in Test cricket is the most accomplished batsman in the longest format of the game. And, every time you see him performing baptism with fire, you can’t help but wonder how he would have fared against the likes of Wasim Akram, Curtly Ambrose, Waqar Younis and all those great bowlers of the 1990s?

Smith’s greatest strength- apart from his iron-willed mindset- is his supreme mastery at hand-eye coordination. When he moves back and across, he does it at the same time, and he almost always ensures that his head stays dead still. 

Courtsey this, Smith has racked up runs against the best fast bowlers of his times and across all conditions; the way he came back and scored 774 runs against the Dukes in seaming conditions to champion Australia’s first successful Ashes defence since 2001, and especially the way in which he countered Jofra Archer after having been hit on the head, remains a testimony to it.

Smith has been equally good against the reverse-swing in the sub-continent; something which was one of the key skills required to be successful in the 90s. Smith is a champion, and while the 1990s and its barrage of fast bowlers may have posed a different kind of challenge to him, there is no doubt that a champion like him would have found a way to succeed there as well.