While he had to wait for more than a month after he missed reaching the 10,000-run mark during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy which concluded recently, Australian batsman Steve Smith crossed the landmark during Australia’s ongoing first innings against Sri Lanka in the first Test match at Galle on Wednesday. The 35-year-old became only the fourth Australian cricketer besides Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting to achieve the rare feat and also became the 15th cricketer in the world to do so. Former England cricketer Michael Vaughan has called Smith’s feat as being close to talked about like cricketing legend Don Bradman.
“I would argue that he is the best modern day Test match player. I think he is the best problem solver. He has a quirky technique but he just seems to be able to pick the ball out of the hand of the bowlers quicker than most. He has this amazing ability to study the field and work out what is on and what is not on any given day on a pitch. If you look at his numbers, there are only a small few who have got close to being talked about like Don Bradman. And when you are in a conversation when the Don is involved, you know you are pretty good,” Vaughan told Fox Cricket.
Smith has scored 12 Test hundreds against England and also scored 11 hundreds against India, two of which came during the recently held Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The Australian batsman has scored more than 6,000 runs against England and India combined with him playing 61 Tests against the two countries in total. Former Indian coach Ravi Shastri too lauded Smith’s career. “I’ve seen all these hundreds as a coach and as a broadcaster and he’s a special player. He’s so passionate about the game. What amazes me is how he’s prepared to adapt to different conditions. He got a hundred on a rank turner in India, which was special. And even when he’s not at his best, he finds ways to get into positions to score runs. When you’re around for that length of time, there are teams analysing you, there are video analysts looking at every part of your technique. And then to still be able to be ahead of the curve — and he will average over 55 — at the age of 35, to go past 10,000 runs is special. So I think he’s a great player,” Shastri told Fox Cricket.
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