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Joe Root vs Shubman Gill, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson: England's beast is head and shoulders above his contemporaries
In the fifth Ashes Test, Joe Root's innings exemplifies his status as the best active Test batter.
Joe Root produced a classic SCG innings in the ongoing fifth Ashes Test, the kind that survives good bowling, shifting tempo, and long hours, and it lands at a time when Root’s output has quietly become the modern benchmark.
The data case: Root vs the rest
The cleanest method to judge who is the current best Test batter, the cleanest method is a transparent window that captures current form with a meaningful sample: all Tests with a start date between January 1, 2024, and January 5, 2026. Here is what the numbers say.
Joe Root’s edge is a combination of scale and conversion. In this span, he has scored 2,521 runs at an average of 56.02 with 11 hundreds, the most compelling volume+elite+average+match-defining innings package among the active batters.
If you are looking for who genuinely threatens that claim, the challengers fall into distinct lanes.
Shubman Gill is the closest all-round challenger on output and conversion. He has 1,849 runs at an average of 54.38 with eight hundreds in the same window, the kind of profile that screams sustained purple patch.
Harry Brook is the closest on workload and run volume, but slightly behind on conversion. Brook has scored 1,955 runs at an average of 51.44, with six hundreds and eight fifties. The shape of that line is important: Brook is producing heavily, but Root is converting more of his starts into hundreds.
Kane Williamson is the best when it comes to consistency. Williamson averages 57.04 in this span with four hundred, but he has played only 12 Tests to Root’s 28. If the definition of best is peak quality when available, Williamson stays in the frame; if it is sustained dominance across the calendar, Root’s body of work is heavier.
Travis Head is the impact batter, the one who changes games fastest. His average (43.31) does not compete with Root’s, but his strike rate (82.92) is a different game inside the same sport. With five hundreds in this period, Head’s case is about damage, not accumulation.
Steve Smith, Temba Bavuma, and Aiden Markram sit a tier below Root in this specific window. Smith has 1,141 runs at an average of 42.25. Bavuma has been excellent in limited volume - 813 runs at an average of 54.20, but with fewer matches and fewer hundreds. Markram’s output, at 902 runs at an average of 34.69, doesn’t support a “best active batter” case in this period.
The away Test that often settles the debates
Even inside this window, Root has a strong portability marker: an average of 47.55 away, with the overall average staying above 56. Several others show sharper home/away drop-offs in the same span - Williamson has an away average of 34.50, and Head 30.07.
Verdict
On a pure data read of recent Test cricket, Root has the strongest “best active Test batter presently” claim because he pairs elite output with elite conversion and credible away returns. The closest challengers are Gill, Brook, Williamson, and Head.
And Root’s 160 at the SCG is the live example: when the moment demands a grown-up innings, he is still the safest bet in Test cricket.
