File image of Steve Smith
On Monday, July 13, Australian cricketer Steve Smith celebrated his decade-long Test career that had begun back in 2010 when a 21-year-old chubby cricketer was handed the Test cap by legend Ricky Ponting, in a match against Pakistan. Smith has since come a long, long way.
Back in his earlier days, Smith was a leg-spinner who could also bat. In his debut appearance, he batted at No. 8 and 9 scoring 1 and 12 respectively while also finished with bowling figures of 3 for 51 in the second innings.
10 years hence, Smith is no longer a second-choice spinner but is the best batsman in Australia's current Test lineup, and such has been his dominance with the willow that he has been compared to the greatest ever, Sir Donald Bradman, while being considered a modern-era great alongside Indian captain Virat Kohli.
He last took a Test wicket back in 2016 and has been Australia's mainstay No.4 option since late 2014, a position where he has scored 3701 runs at an average of 74 with 13 centuries.
Overall, Smith has amassed 7227 runs in 131 innings at 62.84 with 26 Test hundreds. While his average is the best after Bradman, he is presently the fourth-highest run-getter among active cricketers.
Celebrating his decade-long Test career, Smith shared pictures from his first Test on Instagram as he captioned it, "It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since my Test debut. It’s been an amazing ride so far. Maybe another 10 years in me?"
Smith's glorious Test career, however, hit a bump when he was served a year's ban from international cricket owing to his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal during the South Africa series in 2018.
But he made a stupendous return to the format with his tally of 744 runs in seven innings last Ashes at an average of 110.57 which includes a double hundred, 2 more hundreds and 3 fifties.
Smith will now be preparing for the India Test series at home which will begin from December 3 onwards.
