Firstly, Smith has an amazing average because he's an amazing player. I'm not knocking that. He's also played significantly less and has less runs compared to Root because he was banned for a significant time for cheating at the game which he's supposed to love and present globally. Whatever conversation you have about Smith, this will always and rightfully be brought up.
On averages - Root should and would have a much higher average had he played in the types of sides Smith has played in over the course of their test careers, but that's a purely hypothetical point.
There is no doubt the Australians cheated in 2018, but the whole thing was blown massively out of proportion by Cricket Australia with their "holier than thou" attitude, imposing their bans (12 months for Smith and Warner, 9 months for Bancroft). The ICC actually banned Smith for 1 test.
Ball tampering goes on all the time. Faf de Plessis was found guilty of tampering in the 2016 series between the same 2 teams. The SA cricket board did nothing. No one remembers.
Nicholas Pooran was banned for 4 matches in 2020 by the ICC after admitted tampering. The West Indies cricket board did nothing. No one remembers.
In 2010 James Anderson and Stuart Broad were accused of ball tampering. To quote captain Nassar Hussein "Stuart Broad and James Anderson were wrong to behave in the manner they did and I've no doubt that if a player from another country did the same, we'd have said they were cheating." The England cricket board did nothing. No one remembers.
In Marcus Trescothick's autobiography he admits England cheated in the 2005 Ashes which they won 2-1. To quote Trescothick "It was my job to keep the shine on the new ball for as long as possible with a bit of spit and a lot of polish. And through trial and error I finally settled on the spit for the task at hand. It had been common knowledge in county cricket for some time that certain sweets produced saliva which, when applied to the ball for cleaning purposes, enabled it to keep it's shine for longer and therefore it's swing." He found Murray mints worked the best. The England cricket board did nothing. No one remembers.
Other players who have been accused of ball tampering/cheating include Michael Atherton, Waqer Younis, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Inzamam-ul-Haq. In each case the respective cricket boards did nothing. No one remembers.
I'm not saying Smith did not deserve to be punished, but the 12 month ban was a massive overreaction. Maybe if all the others had been treated similarly such treatment would be justified, but they weren't and it wasn't.
