Giving his views in a longstanding debate of supremacy, Australia's Marnus Labuschagne picked his countryman Steve Smith above India great Virat Kohli as the best Test batsman in the world at the moment.
Both Kohli and Smith boast of exceptional Test record in the modern-day game, where conditions have been tougher and the home bowling attacks are deeper than ever.
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But if you ask Labuschagne, Australia's young rising star with the bat, it is Smith who he believes is placed just above Kohli in the Test match game.
"I think Steve (Smith) in Test cricket has just shown in any condition, he can find away. I think that’s what you know really makes him the best, number one Test player in the world," Labuschagne told India Today in an interview.
"He has found a way in India, he has found a way to score in England, he is obviously very consistent in Australia, so it seems that it doesn’t matter where are you playing and in what conditions, he is finding a way. Now, Virat has probably done a similar thing. I will probably go with Steve in Test cricket," he added.
Smith's Test record gives an astonishing read. The right-hand batsman averages 62.8 after 73 games for 7,227 runs, including 26 hundreds and 29 half-centuries.
In white-ball cricket, however, Kohli remains the numero uno batsman for someone like Labuschagne to look up to and aspire to have as great a career.
"Virat’s white-ball cricket is phenomenal. The way he finishes innings, the way he finishes matches off, the way he chases. I think for me personally, I have learned a lot from him," he said on Kohli, who has 11,876 runs in 248 ODIs for India at an average of 59.34 and strike-rate of 93.25.
In T20Is, Kohli is one of those rare batsmen, who have been able to maintain a good strike-rate without compromising on their consistency, with his 2,794 runs coming at a rate of 138.25 and average of 50.8 across 81 games.
Labuschagne says he takes inspiration from the journey of Kohli, Smith, and even David Warner, as he strives to forge a great career across formats for Australia.
"As a cricketer, you go through a period and you have done really well and I know the teams are going to be even more prepared then they were before, they will come harder at me. For me, it’s about not putting one performance together but to be as consistent as I can."
"You know there are so many examples, there is Virat, Steve Smith, David Warner, these guys are putting seasons back to back together for the last ten years. So there are some good people leading the way there, my aim is to try and follow that," he concluded.
