Australian cricket team had a statement-making first day of the second Ashes Test at Lord's following their thrilling win in the series opener at Edgbaston. After the hosts England opted to bowl first, Australian batters made them pay for some lacklustre bowling with sheer masterful batting and positive intent. As always, it was Steve Smith who was the highest run-scorer for Australia as he remained unbeaten on 85 while Travis Head played the enforcer's role to perfection as the visitors smashed 339 runs for the loss of just five wickets on the first day.
Smith, who got out cheaply in both innings at Edgbaston put the first Test behind with a beautiful display of Test match batting and achieved a couple of milestones. During his 85-run knock, Smith not only breached the 9000-run landmark in Test cricket but also reached the 15000-run mark in international cricket. The Australian superstar became the 9th batsman from his country to achieve the milestone.
Smith is the 7th fastest to the landmark behind the likes of Virat Kohli, Hashim Amla, Vivian Richards, Matthew Hayden, Kane Williamson and Joe Root in terms of number of innings as he completed 15000 runs in 351 innings. However, both he and Virat Kohli reached the landmark in their respective 304th match.
Smith is also just behind Kohli for batters with the highest average, who have 15000 international runs against their name. While Kohli is head and shoulders above the rest with an average of 53.44, Smith is second on the list with 49.67, just a touch above Joe Root who is next on the list.
Fastest batters to reach 15000 international runs (number of innings)
333 - Virat Kohli
336 - Hashim Amla
344 - Viv Richards
347 - Matthew Hayden
348 - Kane Williamson
350 - Joe Root
351 - Steve Smith*
354 - Brian Lara
356 - Sachin Tendulkar
361 - Ricky Ponting
361 - Jacques Kallis
Smith will hope to add a few more runs to his tally and notch up his 32nd Test century as Australia eye batting England out of the game.
