Since 1965
Since 1965
Steve Smith made his Test debut on 13 July 2010 at Lord’s against Pakistan, selected as a leg-spinner and batting at #8. Tonight, almost 13 years later, he plays his 100th Test match at Headingley against England, becoming the 15th Australian to play 100 Tests. Interestingly, this will be his first Ashes Test at Headingley –Tests weren’t played there on the 2013 & 2015 tours and he missed the 2019 Test as a result of his concussion suffered at Lord’s. His only previous Test at Headingley was his second, against Pakistan in 2010 when he scored his first half century (77 in the second innings).
He played 5 Tests before he was out of the team for 2 years & 2 months, missing 22 Tests. He came back into the team in India in March 2013 and has missed 10 Tests since (9 during his suspension and one when he was concussed in 2019). After his first 5 Tests, he had scored 259 runs at 28.78. During his time out of the team, he worked on his batting to develop a technique that has taken him to the top of world cricket. In the 94 Tests since his return to the team, he has scored 8854 runs at 61.49.
He goes into his 100th Test with 9113 runs at an average of 59.56, including 32 centuries – the highest aggregate and average & the most centuries of anyone playing their 100th Test. The next highest aggregate is 8833 (Brian Lara), the next highest average is 58.16 (Rahul Dravid) and the next highest number of centuries is 30 (Sachin Tendulkar). He has also taken 160 catches, comfortably the most by any player after 99 Tests – next on the list are Stephen Fleming (149) and Mark Taylor (148).
Cricinfo has published an outstanding article detailing the outstanding achievements in Steve’s Test career – see Steven Smith’s Test career in numbers .
Everyone at SDCC wishes Smithy the best of luck in what will be an outstanding achievement for him!
