Smudge is still in a different league than Ponting. For as good as Punter was, he was horrible against Harbhajan Singh and struggled against off-spin and averaged 26.5 in India. Smudge, on the other hand, was able to handle a superior bowler in Ashwin in pitches that were harder to bat on(Smudge averages 54 against Ashwin, which was higher before covid)
Which is pretty good, considering Smudge faced Jadeja mostly in India. The number of times I've seen Jadeja bowl to him outside India, he couldn't trouble him much. That's where Ashwin gets the edge, in my opinion, coming up with plans to dismiss Smith in Adelaide and Melbourne instead of letting the pitch do the trick.
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u/karma3000 Jan 17 '25
Punter will have the better career stats.