NSW batter Ollie Davies compared to Steve Smith, David Warner after breakthrough season

Ollie Davies has only played eight Shield matches for NSW but he was his state’s leading run-scorer this season and drawn some huge comparisons.

The positives have been plentiful for NSW this domestic season and one of the biggest has been the emergence of young batting star Ollie Davies who has been compared to greats including Steve Smith and David Warner after starring in his team’s final victory over Queensland.

With the final sewn up on Wednesday and just points to play for the Blues scored their fourth win of the season and jumped over Victoria and into third spot on the table with the five-wicket win in Brisbane.

It came on the back of a brilliant first innings century from Davies who pounded 131 off 147 balls to record his third hundred of a breakthrough red-ball campaign.

The 23-year-old, who made his Big Bash debut as a 20-year-old in 2020 but only made his Shield debut in March, 2023, finished his campaign with 670 runs at an average of 67.

He was the clear leading run-scorer for NSW, 236 runs better than next best Daniel Hughes, and only three batters across the entire competition scored more than Davies. They all played 10 matches to his seven, highlighting Davies’ significant accomplishment.

Ollie Davies batting for New South Wales. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

His NSW captain Moises Henriques has played with some of the best batters in recent history across his 20 year career, including Smith and Warner, and was happy to compare the young tyro to the star duo declaring he was bound for higher honours.

“I’ve been playing cricket professionally for 19, 20 years, and I’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of young, special batters come through the NSW ranks,” Henriques said.

“Ollie seems to be another one of those guys. He’s very hard to stop the runs once he gets up and going.

“He’s always moving the scoreboard forward and able to keep scoring runs even in difficult batting conditions.

“For him to come out and score three hundreds in seven games this season in bowler-friendly conditions – it just shows that mindset of always scoring runs and putting the bowlers under pressure.

“His defence is solid enough too. He reminds me a lot of a mix between Steve Smith, David Warner and even Phil Hughes – they’re always looking to score runs.

“He has a special understanding of the way he bats and understands the game and is able to score runs where others can’t.”

The victory for NSW capped a stunning turnaround, having failed to win 15-straight Shield matches before a breakthrough 10-wicket win over Western Australia in November sparked their charge up the table.

Queensland, however, endured the opposite type of season and finished dead last on the ladder with just two wins and two draws from 10 matches.