Steven Peter Devereux Smith (born 2 June 1989) is an Australian international cricketer, and was the an ex-captain of the Australian national team. Smith has been compared in the style of Donald Bradman, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman in history because of his unique high batting rate in the Tests.
Although he initially was selected for Australia as a right-arm leg spinner Smith then primarily played as batsman. After playing five games from the 2010-2011 season He was then recalled into his Australian squad in the year 2013 and was appointed captain over Michael Clarke in late 2015 following which he primarily batted at the number 3 or 4.
The awards he has received includes awards he has won include the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in the year 2015; ICC Test Player of the Year in both 2015 and the year 2017; ICC Test Men's Player of the Decade from 2011 to 2020 The Allan Border Medal for the most outstanding athlete of Australian Cricket in the years 2015, 2018, in 2021 and 2015; Australian Test Player of the Year in 2015 and 2018 and Australian One Day International Player of the Year in the years 2015 and 2021. He was chosen in the Wisden Almanack of 2016. Wisden for being one of their cricketers of the year in the 2016 edition of the Wisden Almanack.
in 2014 New Zealand batsman Martin Crowe stated Martin Crowe Smith as being one of the newest members of the Fab Four Cricketers from the Test era alongside Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli. On December 30, 2017, Smith scored an batting score in Test cricket of 947, which is the second highest of all time, and only after Don Bradman's record of 961.
In March of 2018, Smith was widely criticised for his oversight of ball tampering in the third Test match against South Africa, during which Smith was removed from the captaincy of the team being replaced with Tim Paine. After an investigation by Cricket Australia, Smith was barred from all domestic and international games in Australia for a period of one year, beginning on March 29, 2018 and was barred from consideration for any leadership position for a further year.
Life in the early years and later
Steve Smith was born on 2 June 1989 in Kogarah, Sydney to an Australian father, Peter, who has an undergraduate degree in chemistry along with an English mother, Gillian. Smith went to Menai High School, but was 17 when he left to pursue a career in cricket England where Smith played in the cricket club of Sevenoaks Vine in the Kent Cricket League. He was so good at Sevenoaks that he got selected to play in Surrey's second XI.
Since Smith's mother came from London, Smith has dual British and Australian citizenship. In the year 2011, Smith started dating Dani Willis who was who is a law and commerce student studying at Macquarie University. In June 2017 Smith and Dani announced they were getting engaged on a vacation on holiday in New York. They were married at Berrima, New South Wales on September 15, 2018.
Careers for domestic and youth
Smith was part of the Australian team in the 2007 Under-19 Cricket World Cup in Malaysia. In the tournament , he made 114 and was able to take seven wickets over four games.
Smith made his debut as a first-class player with New South Wales against Western Australia at the SCG on January 25, 2008. Smith scored 33 runs in his one-hit inning during the time that New South Wales defeated Western Australia without a doubt. Smith played in the New South Wales team that took home in 2009 the Twenty20 Champions League. In the final match against Trinidad and Tobago at Hyderabad, Smith made 33 with the bat. He also picked up two wickets.
In the 2009-10 season, Smith had a first-class batsman's average of more than 50 after playing in 13 first-class matches. Although his bowling performance in the first class of the upper 40s was not as remarkable, his bowling seemed to be improving steadily after a well-publicized coaching as well as praises by Shane Warne. In the final game of the season, he recorded seven for 64 during the first wicket against South Australia.
Big Bash League
Smith was able to make the Twenty20 Cricket debut with New South Wales in a match against South Australia at Adelaide on 1 January 2008, during the six-team KFC Big Bash event. Smith was the top wicket-taker in the 2007 Big Bash tournament. He scored four wickets against Queensland and ended up with 9 wickets in total. He was named the second-best player in the competition. In the year 2011-12 The Australian T20 competition became the city-based Big Bash League featuring eight teams. Smith was a member of with the Sydney Sixers and filled in as captain during the time that Brad Haddin could not play due to his Test duties and then led the team to victory during the opening season. As an all-rounder Smith scored 166 runs with the bat over nine games with an average striking rate of 130.71 and a half century. When he played his ball, he scored six wickets with an economy pace at 8.06 for each over. He also took nine wickets during the tournament. In the final match the Sixers defeated the Perth Scorchers by 7 wickets in the process of chasing an elusive 157 in 18.5 overs, after the Scorchers were able to score 5/156 over 20 overs. Smith's excellent form in this season's Big Bash League, attracted the interest of the former India captain Sourav Ganguly. He was enlisted to play for Pune Warriors, the Pune Warriors India team captained by Sourav Ganguly during the 2011 Indian Premier League. Smith was also appointed captain for the squad during one game, during which Ganguly was not playing in spite of Australian captain Michael Clarke being the vice-captain. Smith continued to be a part of the same team in 2013 with the leadership of Angelo Mathews.
Indian Premier League
Smith was first purchased at the time by Royal Challengers Bangalore for the 2010 Indian Premier League as a replacement for Jesse Ryder. In 2011, during the IPL auction for players Smith was purchased from Kochi Tuskers Kerala for $200,000 and he then had to undergo an operation on his ankle and was unable to play that season.
The following season Kochi Tuskers were dropped from the IPL and Smith was offered for auction. Smith was not sold during the 2012 IPL Players Auction, but was later purchased to replace Mitchell Marsh by the Pune Warriors India. In his first game for his new team He scored 39 runs from 32 balls and led his side to victory over India's Mumbai Indians. He was awarded The Man of the Match Award for his performance.
In the auction of IPL 2014 in 2014 Smith got bought out by Rajasthan Royals for $600,000. Smith was named captain of the Royals during the second half of the 2015 season . He helped the team win notable victories, thereby ensuring the team's place in the play-off portion in the IPL.
In the 2015 IPL Auction, Smith was purchased by a new franchise called that of the Rising Pune Supergiants for the same amount as the auction before ($600,000) but was unable to find his form early on. Smith eventually broke a streak of low scores in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, scoring 46*. His form continued to improve as Smith recorded his maiden T20 century in the match against Gujarat Lions, scoring 101 from 54 balls. Then he scored 45 more in the match against Mumbai Indians, before being exiled from the rest of the tournament due to an injury to his wrist.
The Supergiant management has dismissed MS Dhoni as captain and was appointed Smith Captain for 2017. In the first match of RPS's with Mumbai Indians, Smith led his team to victory fashion with a score of 84* and was awarded The Man Of The Match award. Three consecutive losses the team was in the last spot on the scoreboard. An eight-win streak in 10 games contributed to Supergiant finish in second spot, which allowed them to get into the playoffs with Smith being praised for his leadership from famous cricketers and experts such as Sunil Gavaskar and Kevin Pietersen. Smith led his team to the final by winning the 20-run victory against Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 1. Smith's men took on Mumbai again. Smith scored 51 runs from 50 balls, but was unable to bring RPS into victory. Pune was defeated only by 1 run. Smith was the RPS's top run-scoring player during the tournament with 472 runs, at 53.23%. 39.33 which included three fifties.
In February of 2018 Smith was appointed Captain of Rajasthan Royals for the IPL 2018 season. But, after his admission to involvement within the Australian test team's ball tampering scandal during the Third Test held in South Africa in March 2018 The team then announced their team members that Smith was removed from his position. Ajinkya Rahane assumed the role of the new captain of the Rajasthan Royals team.
On March 28, 2018, following his ban from Cricket Australia for his involvement in a ball-tampering incident Smith's contract as a cricketer for the Royals was removed at the request of the Board of Control for Cricket in India as Steve Smith and fellow Australian batsman David Warner were banned from playing with their respective teams in the 2018 IPL edition.
In November of 2018 Smith was re-appointed as the captain of Rajasthan Royals for the 2019 Indian Premier League. After losing six of the eight games of the year, Smith was appointed as captain of the Rajasthan Royals by replacing Ajinkya Rahane. In the competition, he recorded 319 runs, with average 39.87 and scored three fifties.
The auction was unsuccessful. 2022 IPL auctions.
