(Cricket news) Steve Smith has been the top run getter in the Ashes series in the current era. He has played 28 matches while scoring 2812 runs with an average of 63.90 which is the third highest in history for players who have played more than 40 innings. Only Don Bradman and
Herbert Sutcliffe has higher averages than Smith, the right hander has hit 11 centuries as only Jack Hobbs and Bradman have hit more.
Smith has flourished against England in Test matches, he has 2812 runs including three double centuries and his maiden century also came against England in 2013 three years his debut. The 2017/18 Ashes series saw Smith taking out the English bowlers one by one as he scored 687 runs in 7 innings with three centuries and 2 half centuries. Smith started with a century in the first Test, in the second Test he hit 40 in the first innings and got early in the second. In the third Test, Smith spared nobody as he hit a career best 239 which lasted for 9 hours and in the fourth test again hit a century and a half century as England bowlers couldn't beat him. In the final test, Smith hit a half century to bring his series average at 137.40 which was the second highest in history after Bradman’s 139.40 in 1930.
Smith’s defining Ashes moment has to be the 2019 series which showed why is one the finest batters in the game. In the 1st Test, Smith hit centuries in both the innings as he continued to run all over the English bowlers who had suffered the same fate last year. In the second Test, he missed a century by 8 runs and in the second innings got struck by a bouncer off Jofra Archer which resulted in a neck injury and a concussion as he did not play the 3rd test. Smith came back as he answered with a double century in the first innings of the fourth test and hit a 92 ball 92 as the question of can he survive turned into can the bowlers survive. In the fifth and final Test, Smith scored a patient 80 off 145 balls as his partners got dismissed early and in the second innings could not hold any longer as he got out without getting many runs on the scoreboard.
In the 2019 Ashes series, he had scored 774 runs which is the fifth highest and the highest in 3 decades. Smith will need to score 88 runs more to become the 6th player to score over 3000 runs in the Ashes series and is 40 runs away from becoming the 6th highest run getter. Steve Waugh was the third and last Australian to score more than 3000 runs in the Ashes series, Smith is the only player in the current squad from both the slides to have more than 2000 runs.Wally Hammond of England is the 5th highest run getter with 2852 runs and Smith will be getting past Hammond in the series as he has more records to bring down.
Also read: Australia face dilemma after Hazelwood's injury and Warner's fitness doubts ahead of 2nd Ashes Test
