Steve Smith Has Not Gone Anywhere: Australian Cricket Team batter Steve Smith scored a fine century in the fourth Test match of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The talk around the veteran batter has come a long way, from calls for retirement to becoming an Australian hero, who scored two centuries in two matches.
Before the start of the Australia vs India Test series, Smith only had 213 runs in five Tests in 2024 with an average of 26.62 and only one 50. Before that, 2023 was his worst full year as a Test batter in a decade.
All this meant that some people were calling for the 35-year-old to retire and make way for young talent to come into the team. Smith has even had commentary experience during the IPL for the past couple of seasons.
Steve Smith Has Not Gone Anywhere
But these slight whispers surrounding Smith’s retirement, which came up due to him not scoring a 100 in red-ball cricket in over a year, turned into loud shouts after his dismal performances in the first two Tests of the series against India.
In the three innings, he batted across the two games, the veteran scored 0, 17, and 2. This meant more than it seemed. Not only did it look like the end of the career of the best Australian Test batter of the past decade, but with David Warner retiring and Usman Khawaja out of form as well, it looked like the end of an era for Australian cricket.
But all that shifted with the third India vs Australia Test match at the Gabba in Brisbane. India won the toss and decided to bowl first. The Aussies lost three wickets quite early in the inning. But then, Steve Smith, along with in-form Travis Head, stitched together a 241-run partnership to bat India out of the rain-affected game.
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While Head scored his second ton of the series, Smith scored his first in about 18 months. Despite looking a bit shaky throughout the inning, Smithy held on and reached the 100-run mark. He got out almost immediately after at 101, but his inning played a massive role in Australia being the favourite to win the match despite it getting drawn because of rain.
Coming to the fourth Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia got a grand start while batting first after winning the toss. All of their top-four batters scored 50s. At the end of Day One, the score was 311/6, and Smith was batting at 68.
Today, on Day Two, not only did he score yet another 100, but he went on to score 140 runs, looking dominant throughout and getting out in a freakish manner. This is his largest score in Test cricket since scoring an unbeaten 200 against the West Indies in November/December 2022.
On the back of Steve Smith’s century, Australia went on to score 474 in the first inning. At the end of Day Two of the fourth Test, India is at 164/5 and trailed by 310 runs.
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