What Is Fab 4 In Cricket?

‘Fabulous 4’ or commonly ‘Fab 4’ in cricket has yet again managed to garner attention after former India batter Aakash Chopra excluded former India captain Virat Kohli from the list a day ago via his YouTube channel. Part of the list are four batters of modern-day cricket in Joe Root, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Kohli for having amazed the cricketing fraternity with their batting prowess and stellar run-scoring consistency for quite some years now.

As per Chopra, having scored at an average of 26.7 in Test cricket since January 2020, Kohli should no longer be part of the ‘Fab 4’ cricketers. During this three-and-a-half year period, the 34-year-old has managed to smash just one century across 25 Tests (44 innings) while scoring a below par 1,277 runs.

In fact, during this very period, the averages of Root (54.8 across 43 Tests), Smith (49.9 across 27 Tests), and Williamson (72.7 across 16 Tests) are much better that Kohli’s which is more than enough testament to the lean patch the star cricketer is going through in the longest format.

What Is Fab 4 In Cricket?

Remarking that at present there is only a ‘Fab 3’ citing Kohli’s ordinary numbers for a considerable period of time, Chopra further clarified that the four players are only analyzed on the basis of their Test format record, and pleaded the Kohli fans to not cite his ODI numbers and other batting records to prove how his take makes no sense.

Test cricket’s ‘Fab 4’ was first termed and used by former New Zealand captain late Martin Crowe. In one of his columns for ESPNcricinfo back in August 2014, Crowe had prophesied that all the four names in the ‘Fab 4’ in Kohli, Root, Smith, and Williamson would go on to become future captains of their respective countries.

The unbelievable part of his visionary analysis of all these four batters was that apart from Root (50.94), none of the other three batters had an average above 50 at the time.

Posing amazing belief in their batting ability, Crowe had predicted (rightly) that all these batters would take turns to as the No. 1 Test batter, while also had sensed that Kohli will up his game in the ODI format.

“My sense is that they will all take turns as the No. 1 Test batsman, while Kohli already has the one-day mantle in his sights. Maybe it is his prowess in, and preference for, the limited-over formats that will hold him back in Tests? Maintaining one’s game while playing three different formats is the most challenging aspect confronting the modern-day batsman.”

Twitterati Slam Aakash Chopra For Fab 4 Comment

Along expected lines, Kohli fans on social media platform Twitter (or some otherwise) were unimpressed with Chopra leaving out Kohli from Crowe’s ‘Fab 4′ list. As per them, these four players’ names have already been forged with an indelible ink in the list, which is not subject to further change. Hence, there was no point in leaving out any player(s) from the same as it is not a ranking of international players.

Chopra, on the other hand, argued by stating that Crowe had identified only the “Young Fab 4” in the year 2014 and had not mentioned the fact that there shouldn’t be any modification to it.

While Chopra is indeed correct when he states that Crowe had come up with a “Young Fab 4” back then, the latter’s article had also ended with the sentence – “And who will join these fabulous four?.” Did he assume this term and the players associated with it as a given? All we can say is that it is open to interpretations and there is no way one can have an answer to the same as well.

Demand To Include Babar Azam In Fab 4 (or 5)

While discussing the topic, Chopra had also mentioned how Pakistan captain Babar Azam has also proven his mettle in the Test format. If we look at the numbers, Azam averages 48.63 with the help of nine centuries and 26 fifties across 48 Tests.

However, having made his Test debut only in 2016, Chopra feels Azam still has a long way to go to be recognized as one of the best and possibly make it to the Fabulous 4 or 5 batters in the future.

Babar Azam fans have often demanded his inclusion in this list owing to his consistency in this format and especially after Kohli’s prolonged dry spell of runs since the past three years-and-a-half.

Laxman Sivaramakrishnan Provides His Fab 4

Putting forward his views as well on the matter, former Indian spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan opined that no other than the quartet of West Indies legends in Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, and Joel Gardner can become part of the ‘Fab 4’.

All these legendary fast bowlers are still placed in the Top 10 list of all-time leading wicket-takers for West Indies in the Test format. All these four fast bowlers were also part of the 1983 edition of the World Cup and had also played the final match against India.

While agreeing with Sivaramakrishan to prove his earlier point, Chopra took a dig at the one against his argument by remarking that cricket wasn’t played before 2014 and the advent of social media.

Earlier, he had replied to one of the Twitter users that ‘Fab 4’ was also used back in 2008 for the four legendary Indian batters in Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, and VVS Laxman.