Ashes 2019: Australian premier batsman Steve Smith has been in the form of his life since he made a return to Test cricket after serving a ban. Smith bagged the Man of the Match in the first and the fourth Test. Smith already has 671 runs in 5 innings (3 matches). He has the highest score of 211 and a staggering average of 134.20. He has slammed three centuries in the ongoing series and is 203 runs away from a world record. He has a chance of surpassing Sir Donald Bradman for the highest number of runs in a single series. Bradman scored a mammoth 974 runs in 5 matches in 1930 Ashes. Bradman’s 974 was laced with four hundred.
With the last Test at Oval starting tomorrow, Smith would be eyeing the massive feat. Australia has already retained the Ashes with the 185-run win at Old Trafford, Manchester.
“He (Smith) has done a lot for Australian cricket for the last few years actually, and so has Dave Warner. But we’ve also got to remember, Travis Head is new to Test cricket, Marnus (Labuschagne) is new to Test cricket, Marcus Harris is new to Test cricket, Cameron Bancroft is new to Test cricket,” Cricket.com.au quoted Langer as saying.
“You can’t just give them that experience, they’ve got to earn that and we’re very thankful to have Steve batting (like he is). We’re lucky to have him but Test cricket takes time. We’ve got to respect that, it takes a lot of time,” he added.
Meanwhile, Smith has also retained his No 1 spot in the Test ranking, pipping Indian captain Virat Kohli. Smith’s player of the match effort of 211 and 82 runs at Old Trafford in the two innings has lifted him to 937 rating points, only 10 less than his all-time best aggregate achieved in December 2017.
