10 batsmen who are ahead of Virat Kohli in the ICC All-Time Test rankings list

(2) Steven Smith (Australia): 947

Steven Smith's rise is the greatest cricketing story of the 21st century.

Australia has produced some fantastic batsmen over the years: Bradman, Chappell, Border, Waugh, Ponting, Clarke and many more. Just when it looked like the production line had dried up, they found an unlikely hero in Steven Smith, who may turn out to be their greatest ever. Smith made his test debut against Pakistan in 2010 as a leg-spinner who could bat a bit. It was the time when Australia gave a debut to everyone in Gold Coast who could turn their arm over, except this worked out, just in a very different way.

Smith was dropped soon after his debut, but his return to the test side in 2013. He was still mocked for his idiosyncrasies, but there was a marked improvement in his batting. By the time the 2015 Ashes rolled around, Smith was the world's best batsman. He crossed the 900 barrier in that series, and never looked back since. The 2017 Ashes series saw Smith go to unforeseen places. Smith scored a series defining double hundred at Perth, and joined Len Hutton for the joint 2nd spot in the ICC All-Time rankings list, He scored 76 and 102* in the next test, and got the 2nd spot all for himself, with 947 rating points. It was the highest rating achieved by any batsman in the past 70 years.

Starting from the Adelaide test match in 2014 till the 2017 Ashes, Smith had scored 4522 runs in 39 tests at an average of 80 which included 19 centuries and 15 half-centuries. It was an extraodrinary run, and now Smith was expected to challenge Bradman for the top spot in the list, but the Ball-tempering incident in South Africa meant that Smith has fallen off his perch. He will be off the rankings list by the time he returns to Test cricket, and it looks very unlikely that he will get to those heights ever again. But if the past decade has taught us anything, it is that you never write off Steven Smith.