So far, a big performance in the UAE is the ONLY thing he is missing in his test match batting career - and even then, he came pretty close with a 97.
Even if he got a 100 it wouldn't exactly be big. He has to score match winning runs there and against Pakistan who have hadt he best spinners over the last 8 or so years.
The already has five hundreds against England in 18 matches, a handful of which were played when he was a bowling all-rounder. Matches that Australia won in the most recent Ashes series were off the back of the runs that Steve Smith made.
My enduring image of Smiths Australia (cant remember if he was captain then or not) is 2015. getting battered by England by huge margins. Yeah they ended up winning the final test and making the scoreline 3-2 but the yhad two massive, back to back defeats which sealed teh series long before the final test. I think Smith scored a century in one of the winning matches but in the end, they got battered in 3 of the test matches.
I don't remember Smith making centuries as a bowler.
Nobody has suggested that he is already an ATG - this thread is speculating the likelihood of it happening. And at the moment, it looks more than likely that he will end up being an ATG.
Sure but like I said, a long way to go.
Smith came through adversity at the start of his career. He made his debut in July 2010, and played his tenth match in August 2013, over three years later, having been dropped from the team multiple times.
It's not called adversity when you're a rubbish leg spin bowler. Of course, it is a sign of exceptional learning ability to transform yourself from a bowler, to a bit part batsman to a number 3/4 batsman. But SMith will still have to come through age, bad form, a time when his reflexes, hands and eyes slow, when his feet slow, when he has to start lobbying against young guns. All the things the likes of Ponting, Tendulkar, Lara, Yousuf and co had to do.
The Aussie line up has changed massively in the past year or two. Of the batsmen he played alongside in the 2013 Ashes whitewash, only Warner remains. And as for the bowlers, only Starc (although he didn't play in that particular series) and Lyon are first team regulars.
Bowlers have been trying to figure Smith out for almost four years now. Barring two poor matches in the 3rd and 4th Ashes tests in 2015, nobody has been able to stop his run-scoring. This suggests one of two things:
- The bowlers are no good.
- Smith is too good for the bowlers.
By scoring runs, perhaps? Which is what he has been doing non-stop for the last four years.
Yes, he can look ungainly a lot of the time, but I personally love the way he clips the ball through the leg side, and his cover drive isn't half bad either.
Just to add, all the players Smith is being compared to - past (Sachin, Ponting, Lara) and present (Kane, Root and Kohli) - only Smith and Sachin average over 40 in every country they have played in. The rest of the batsmen have at least one gaping hole in their CV when it comes to scoring in all conditions.
Like I said, this isn't an argument on how good SMith is now but rather on how good Smith can be. He is miles away from being on the level of any of the past greats but he is slowly working his way there. As for his contemporaries, Root is more elegant, Kohli thus far has had the superior career (is older so theres that)...in terms of Kane, Smith is better in almost all facets.
It's going to be an interesting few years and I'm going to enjoy it. Like I always say, he has an amazing appetite for runs.
