Steven Smith Career

Steven Smith started his career as a spinner and came down at No. 8. Making his debut in 2010, he was a part of Australia’s squad of the T20 World Cup where they were runners up. Australia lost the final to England, however, Smith ended the tournament with 11 wickets in just 7 matches at an average of 14.81, he was also the second-highest wicket-taker of the tournament. Smith was later that year selected for the Ashes 2010-2011, were he performed mainly as a batsman at No. 6 and scored half-centuries, Australia lost the Urn that year and Smith’s career also took a downfall. He was dropped from all three formats of the game and did not play a test match for three years.

In 2013, Smith was called again for series against India, he was picked as a batsman rather than an all-rounder, he scored 92 runs before falling 8 runs short of his century. India faced a shambolic 4-0 loss against India. Australia’s next challenge was the Ashes 2013, Smith scored his maiden century in the last test match of the series, despite the effort, Australia failed to retain the Urn and lost 3-0 to England. However, things took a turn when England toured Australia for Ashes later in the year and was whitewashed 5-0 by Australia. Smith scored a match-saving century at SCG alongside Brad Haddin taking Australia from 5-97 to 326, Australia won the match by 281 runs. 2014 was a year of success for Smith, as India toured Australia preceding the World Cup 2015, he was named as the stand-in captain as Michael Clarke was ruled out due to an injury.

Smith scored 769 runs at an average of 128.16 in just 4 test matches. In 2015 he was named the captain for Australia after Michael Clarke’s retirement, he had a successful tenure as a captain and as a player. In 2018, Smith was banned for a year alongside David Warner and Cameron Bancroft for the ball-tampering scandal. Smith returned to International cricket in the World Cup 2019 after serving a years ban.