The disgraced Australian cricketer, Steven Peter Devereux Smith, born June 2, 1989, turned 29 on Saturday. The former Australian captain is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of Test cricket. Smith is currently, leading the ICC rankings charts for batsmen with 929 points. Many consider him as the most prolific batsmen in the longest format of the game since Don Bradman. On 30 December 2017, after the end of the third Ashes Test, Smith reached a Test batting rating of 947, the second-highest of all time only behind Bradman’s 961.
Born in Sydney, to an Australian father and English mother, Smith holds a dual passport. He made his debut his international debut for Australia as a leg-spinner all-rounder before transforming into a run-machine in 2013 and emerging as one of the finest batsmen. He is engaged to Dani Willis. At 25, he became Australia’s 45th Test skipper, the youngest one as well.
Smith is currently banned to paly international cricket after his involvement in ball-tampering scandal during the Cape Town Test against South Africa. Smith was also sacked as Australia’s captain and earned a two yearlong ban on captaining in Australia for his involvement in the scandal. Smith was also banned by the BCCI as they didn’t allow him to play the recently concluded 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) where he was supposed to lead Rajasthan Royals (RR).
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Major awards and achievements of Steve Smith:
- Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year): 2015
- ICC Test Player of the Year: 2015, 2017
- ICC Test Team of the Year: 2015, 2016, 2017
- ICC ODI Team of the Year: 2015
- Allan Border Medal: 2015, 2018
- Australian Test Player of the Year: 2015, 2018
- Australian One Day International Player of the Year: 2015
Smith has over 10,000 runs in international cricket. Smith has 6.199 runs from 64 Tests at 61.37. He also has 3,431 runs from 108 ODIs at 41.84. He has 31 international hundreds and 61 international wickets to his name.
Heaping praise on the birthday boy for all his achievements, the International Cricket Council (ICC) wished him on Twitter, saying: “He’s the number one ranked Test batsman in the world and in 2017 reached a rating of 947, only bettered by the great Sir Don Bradman. Happy birthday @stevesmith49!”
He's the number one ranked Test batsman in the world and in 2017 reached a rating of 947, only bettered by the great Sir Don Bradman.
Happy birthday @stevesmith49! pic.twitter.com/qjU24aCsHM
— ICC (@ICC) June 2, 2018
On @stevesmith49's birthday, watch his maiden @cricketworldcup century that helped Australia beat India to seal a place in the #CWC15 final! pic.twitter.com/GsKMxxi12p
— ICC (@ICC) June 2, 2018
