Australia in it for the long haul to be No.1 again

AUSTRALIA boasts the leading Test run-scorer and wicket-taker of 2017 but the team’s quest for the No.1 ranking will continue beyond the tour of South Africa.

Steve Smith last year added six more tons to the case he is building to be the nation’s best batsman since Don Bradman, scoring a world-best 1305 runs at 76.76.

Nathan Lyon’s career-best form was also well rewarded in 2017, when he collected a world-best 63 scalps at 23.55.

Australia slipped to fifth on the International Cricket Council’s Test rankings but is set to clamber over England and into third spot behind India and South Africa when the charts are updated after the Ashes.

Cricket Australia has made no secret of prioritising Test performances over other formats, wanting Smith’s XI to become — at least according to the ICC’s table — the best Test side in the world.

It is why some players and coaching staff will head to South Africa early and skip the Twenty20 tri-series, co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

Australia faces the secondplaced Proteas in a four-Test series that starts on March 1 in Durban.

Even if Australia crushed the hosts 4-0 in that contest it would not be able to overtake world No.1 India in the ICC’s rankings.

Every nation in the world struggles to win Tests overseas, with this year’s tours of South Africa and the United Arab Emirates to give Smith a better idea of the talent of his team.

Australia is due to face Pakistan in a short Test series later this year. It then hosts India in 2018-19 and goes to England for the 2019 Ashes.

“I’d like to hope this team can keep growing, keep getting better and keep working our way up the rankings,” Smith said last month. “We’ve still got a long way to go.”

He and Lyon were part of Australian outfits that briefly occupied No.1 place on the ICC’s table, in 2014 and 2016.

Smith has a vice-like hold on top spot on the ICC’s batting charts, with India skipper Virat Kohli some 54 points below him in second place.

Smith has 947 points in the ICC’s latest update, leaving him 14 points below Don Bradman on the all-time rankings list. The classy right-hander has ticked past 1000 runs for a fourth consecutive calendar year, becoming only the second batsman in history along with Australia’s Matthew Hayden to achieve the feat when he plundered England’s attack in Perth. AAP