Steve Smith (cricketer)

Steven Peter Devereux Smith (born 2 June 1989) is an Australian international cricketer, former captain of the Australian national team in all three formats of the game and since 2021, the vice-captain of the Australian Test team. He is regarded as the best Test batsman of his generation, scoring over 10,000 Test runs, having reached an ICC Test batting rating of 947, the second-highest figure of all time, only behind Don Bradman's 961 and was named ICC Men's Test Player of the Decade for 2011–2020. Although he was initially selected for Australia as a leg-spinning all-rounder in all formats in 2010, Smith was always earmarked as a batting prospect following successful batting campaigns in domestic cricket early in his career. After playing five Test matches from 2010 to 2011 as a bowling all-rounder, he was recalled to the Australian Test team in 2013 as a batsman and took over the captaincy from Michael Clarke in late 2015. Smith now plays primarily as a batsman, and has predominantly batted at number 4 in Test cricket and number 3 in ODIs and T20Is. Awards he has won include the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2015; ICC Test Player of the Year in 2015 and 2017; ICC Men's Test Player of the Decade for 2011–2020; the Allan Border Medal for the best player in Australian Cricket in 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023; Australian Test Player of the Year in 2015 and 2018, and Australian One Day International Player of the Year in 2015 and 2021. He was named by Wisden as one of their Cricketers of the Year in the 2016 Wisden Almanack. In December 2017, Smith reached an ICC Test batting rating of 947, the second-highest figure of all time, only behind Don Bradman's 961. In March 2018, Smith as Australian captain was widely criticised for the ball tampering incident which occurred in the third Test against South Africa. During the Test, Smith stood down from the team captaincy following immediate backlash and was replaced by Tim Paine. Following an investigation by Cricket Australia, Smith was banned from all international and domestic cricket in Australia for one year, and from consideration for any leadership role for an additional year. In November 2021, Smith returned to an official Australian leadership role, as Test vice-captain starting in the 2021–22 Ashes series. In December 2021, Smith returned to Test captaincy duties when Pat Cummins was unavailable due to COVID-19 for the 2nd Test. He has since captained in 6 Tests for 5 wins and a draw, including Australia's only Test victory in India since 2017 when he was captain. In March 2023, Smith returned to ODI captaincy duties, he went on to captain another 13 ODIs, winning the 2022–23 ODI series vs India, the 2023–24 ODI series vs West Indies and the 2024 ODI series v England and captaining Australia in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy. He retired from ODI cricket on 5 March 2025, leading Australia in his last ODI as captain. Smith was a core member of the Australian white-ball teams that won the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup and the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup and was vice-captain of the Australia Test team that won the 2021–23 ICC World Test Championship.