Legendary Australian batsman Steve Smith continues to pile runs on his England tour of 2023. He’s batting on 85* overnight after Day 1 of the Lord’s Test, which is the second match of the ongoing Ashes 2023 series.
Steve had started this England 2023 tour on a spectacular note with a match-winning century against India in the WTC Final 2023, where he attested his status as arguably the greatest Test batter by becoming a World Test Champion.
Then, in the first Ashes 2023 Test, even as Australia won the match, Steve couldn’t make any significant contribution as he managed scores of 16 and 6. The 34-year-old didn’t take a long time to return to runs. And he did it in some style on Day 1 at Lord’s with a fluent 85* scored off 149 balls with the help of 10 fours.
Smith was involved in two crucial partnerships at Lord’s: 102 (155) with Marnus Labuschagne and 118 (122) with Travis Head. He will be looking to convert his 85* overnight score into what will be his 32nd Test century, and go on to bat long in this innings to help Australia gain a dominant hand in the Test match in the first innings itself.
During his 85* runs at Lord’s, Smith reached a new milestone of 15,000 international runs, a feat achieved by few batters.
Ashes 2023 – Steve Smith becomos the 7th fastest batsman to reach 15,000 international runs in terms of innings
He achieved this feat in his 351st international innings. Indian superstar Virat Kohli leads the list with 333 innings he took to reach the milestone of 15k international runs, followed by Hashim Amla and Viv Richards.
Fastest to complete 15,000 runs in International Cricket innings-wise:
1) Virat Kohli – 333
2) Hashim Amla – 336
3) Viv Richards – 344
4) Matthew Hayden – 347
5) Kane Williamson – 348
6) Joe Root – 350
7) Steve Smith – 351*
He started out as a leg-spinner but went on to make batting as his dominant aspect, Smith’s Test average at the time of writing is 59.96 – among batters with a minimum 5000 Test runs, only Don Bradman has a higher average (99.94) than Smith. Such are his levels in the longest, toughest format of the game.
Meanwhile, Australia batted briskly on Day 1 at Lord’s to score 339/5 in 83 overs, scoring at 4.08 runs per over. They would aim to bat for about a couple of more sessions on Day 2.
