Steve Smith played his first Test match in July 2010, 5 months after playing his first international T20 game for Australia. He was prominently selected as a bowler rather than a batsman. He even went on to pick 3 wickets in his first game, and scored a 100-ball 77 batting at 8 in his second game. Smith’s batting was acknowledged from then, and he was eventually promoted to play at 6 as an all-rounder.
Despite a lone Ashes game in 2011 January, Smith didn’t play any Test match in 2011 and 2012. He was back to the Test team on tour to India in 2013, where batted at No.5, thanks to his exposed batting prowess in Australia’s domestic leagues. He scored a 92 in the first innings he played in the series, and that innings was a start of one of the phenomenal individual careers in Test Cricket. The Australian batsman’s superiority over the rest of Fab Four in the longest format was explained brilliantly in this Sport360 article.
Smith was made the captain of Australian Test team in late 2015, replacing Michael Clarke, after which he predominantly batted at number 3 or 4. He currently averages more than 60 in Test batting, which is only next to the great Sir Don Bradman. Look at insane Bradman records here.
Steve Smith Test Statistics Year wise
Here’s the table where you can find Steve Smith’s growth in runs in Test Cricket in a year-by-year format.
| YEAR | TEST RUNS | MATCHES | INNINGS | AVERAGE | 100/50 | 200 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 187 | 4 | 8 | 23.38 | 0/1 | 0 |
| 2011 | 72 | 1 | 2 | 72.00 | 0/1 | 0 |
| 2012 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2013 | 711 | 11 | 21 | 37.42 | 2/3 | 0 |
| 2014 | 1146 | 9 | 17 | 81.86 | 5/4 | 0 |
| 2015 | 1474 | 13 | 24 | 73.70 | 6/5 | 1 |
| 2016 | 1079 | 11 | 18 | 71.93 | 4/5 | 0 |
| 2017 | 1305 | 11 | 20 | 76.76 | 6/3 | 1 |
| 2018 | 225 | 4 | 7 | 32.14 | 0/2 | 0 |
| 2019 | 965 | 8 | 13 | 74.23 | 3/4 | 1 |
| 2020 | 73 | 3 | 5 | 18.25 | 0/1 | 0 |
| 2021 | 430 | 5 | 8 | 53.75 | 1/3 | 0 |
| 2022 | 876 | 11 | 18 | 58.40 | 2/5 | 1 |
| 2023 | 929 | 13 | 24 | 42.22 | 3/3 | 0 |
| 2024 | 232 | 7 | 13 | 23.20 | 0/1 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 9704 | 111 | 198 | 56.09 | 32/41 | 4 |
You can also compare this table with Virat Kohli’s year-by-year Test stats.
Stats Insights
- Steve Smith scored his first Test century against England in an Ashes Test in 2013 – 138* at Kennington Oval.
- His first double century also came against England at Lord’s in 2015 – 215. You can read here about a detailed stats report on Test Double Centuries.
- He is currently the fastest batsman to reach 7,000 runs in Tests – 126 innings.
- The Australian right-hander is also the second batsman ever to score 1000+ Test runs in 4 consecutive years from 2014-2017. His suspension from all forms of Cricket in most of 2018 due to the Sandpaper gate incident, restricted his run account in that year. He would have equaled Matthew Hayden’s world-record of 1000+ Test runs in 5 consecutive years (2001-2005) if he had also scored 1000 runs in 2018.
- Smith is also the only player to win the ICC Test Player of the Year award more than once – 2015 & 2017
Wrap up
Steve Smith’s progress in the Test arena is unbelievable, and the numbers above are proof. He also has great cricket followers behind him for his exceptional cricket statistical numbers.
One of Smith’s most remembered innings is his century against England in 2019 when he came back from the one-year suspension. You can read the twitter responses of that innings here.
He is 31 years of age now, and with at least five years of Cricket left from him, a lot will be expected from the Australian No.3, especially I would be curious with the Test batting average he will end up with.
