Star Pakistan pacer Mohammed Amir picked the toughest batsman to bowl and it’s not Indian skipper Virat Kohli. ‘Run machine’ Virat Kohli and Amir have been quite vocal about their mutual respect and admiration towards each other. The 29-year-old captain had even said Mohammed Amir is “one of the toughest bowlers I have played in my career”.

Responding to Virat Kohli’s comment then, Amir had called the Delhi lad ‘best’ and that he was floored with the Indian captain’s assessment of his bowling. However, recently talking to ESPNCricinfo, Amir has revealed that former Australian captain Steve Smith is, in fact, the toughest batsman to bowl to.

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The tainted Australian captain, who has been banned from international cricket for 12 months by Cricket Australia, was called the next Don Bradman by cricket experts due to his magical performance in Test cricket. Steve Smith is still the number one Test player despite not playing a single international match in last three months. The 29-year-old Australian cricketer has played 64 Test matches so far and scored 6,199 runs at an average of 61.38 with 23 centuries to his name.

Steve Smith’s arch-rival Virat Kohli, in comparison, has played 66 Tests and scored 5,554 runs at an average of 53.4 with 21 centuries under his belt.

However, when it comes to the limited over games, Virat Kohli’s stats are way better than his Australian counterpart Steve Smith. The 29-year-old Indian captain has played 208 ODIs and scored whopping 9,588 runs at an average of 58.11 which included 35 centuries. Steve Smith has played 108 ODI games and scored 3,431 runs at an average of 41.84 with just eight hundreds to his name.

In the shortest format of the game, Indian captain has accumulated 2012 runs in the 60 T20I matches at an average of 49.07. Former Aussie captain Smith has scored just 431 runs in 30 T20Is at a poor average of 21.55.