When Australian cricketer Steve Smith last competed in a Test match at Headingley, he had only won one red-ball cap at that point in his illustrious career and was mostly regarded as a leg-spinner.
However, when Smith takes the field at Yorkshire’s headquarters on Thursday for the third match of the Ashes series, he will be gaining his 100th cap as probably the finest batsman of his generation. This match will take place on the third day of the series.
Only three other players have played more than 20 tests and maintained an average above 60, with Don Bradman’s 99.94 Test batting average being an untouchable benchmark in the seventy-five years after the great Australian cricketer retired.
But Smith, whose current record sits at 59.56 — greater than that of his predecessors — might join South Africa’s Graeme Pollock, West Indies’ George Headley, and England’s Herbert Sutcliffe by the time he calls it a career by the time he hangs up his cleats.
During the 2010 neutral series against Pakistan in England, where he had played club cricket as a youth before earning 2nd XI matches for both Kent and Surrey, the now 34-year-old made his debut in a Test match. His first Test match was against Pakistan.
Smith was also England eligible via his English-born mother, not that there ever was much possibility of the Sydney native switching allegiance.
Smith remarked to the BBC that his mother continued to speak with an English accent. “My family is from that region, but I consider Australia to be my home.”
Smith played at No. 8 and bowled 21 overs of leg-spin against Pakistan in 2010. During the match, he took three wickets. According to him, he was one of the 14 spinners that Australia attempted in an attempt to fill the hole created by the retirement of the exceptional Shane Warne and the development of the player who is now ranked number one, Nathan Lyon.
“I really only bowled to be involved in the game as much as I could be,” he added. “That was the only reason I bowled.” “Playing baseball was always my dream job,” she said.
Since then, he has continued to do the same thing, amassing more than 9,000 runs in test matches and 32 hundreds, the most recent of which came during Australia’s victory over England in the second test match at Lord’s last week, which gave the visitors a 2-0 lead in the Ashes series with three matches still to play.
Only Bradman has scored more centuries against England in Ashes cricket; it was his 12th time doing so.
Smith’s method, which potentially contains more moving components than a Swiss watch and a sequence of flashy leaves, is not something to be found in any teaching textbook.
And although many batsmen have been known to be obsessed about their equipment, very few have gone as far as Smith, who covers his boots with tape so that he is not distracted by the sight of his laces when he is batting.
Nevertheless, it is essential to note that at the time of impact, he is often still in a conventional stance.
He said, “I look back at the footage, and I say ‘what was I doing in that moment?'” “When I’m out there, it’s probably for the best that I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m not doing anything special; I’m simply going with the flow of my natural impulses.”
Smith’s otherwise stellar career was interrupted in dramatic manner when, as Australia captain, he got a one-year suspension for his involvement in the ball-tampering controversy that occurred in Cape Town in 2018. Smith was banned for his role in the affair.
In spite of the fact that England supporters jeered at him repeatedly upon his return to Edgbaston, he still managed to make two centuries, helping Australia win the opening match of the 2019 Ashes series. This demonstrates not just his talent but also his tenacity and determination.
As a result, the roar of the Lord’s crowd turning against Australia on Sunday after the disputed stumping of Jonny Bairstow was nothing new to Smith. This meant that Australia’s loss was not a surprise to Smith.
“I’m used to it when I go around this country,” he remarked. “I travel a lot.”
At one point, I greeted the guys with the words “welcome to my life.”
After getting hit in the head by a bouncer delivered by Jofra Archer at Lord’s, Smith was unable to play in the second match of the 2019 Ashes series, which took place at Headingley and resulted in an exciting victory for England by one wicket courtesy to Ben Stokes’ remarkable unbeaten hundred.
That particular series finished in a tie, leaving Australia without its first victory in an Ashes campaign played in England since the year 2001.
“It is something that has been on my bucket list, to win an Ashes series in England,” said Smith. “It is something that has been on my bucket list for a long time.” “What a way to cap it off, if I could do it in my 100th game, it would definitely be something special,” he said. “What a way to top it off.”