Steven Peter Devereux Smith (born 2 June 1989) is an Australian international cricketer who was the was the captain for the Australian national team. Smith has been compared with Donald Bradman, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman in history because of his unique high batting rate in the Tests.
While he was initially picked for Australia as an right-arm leg spinner Smith was later primarily an batting player. After playing in five matches between the 2010-2011 season Smith was called back into Australia in 2013. He was recalled to the Australian squad in the year 2013 and was appointed captain over Michael Clarke in late 2015 and subsequently batted at the number 3 or 4.

The awards he has received includes awards he has won include the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2015. ICC Test Player of the Year in both 2015 and the year 2017; ICC Test for Men Player of the Decade from 2011 to 2020 and the Allan Border Medal for the top athlete for Australian Cricket in the years 2015, 2018, as well as 2021. Australian Test Player of the Year in the years 2015 and 2018 and Australian One Day International Player of the Year in the years 2015 and 2021. He was selected as a result of Wisden among their top cricketers in the 2016 edition of the Wisden Almanack.

in 2014 New Zealand batsman Martin Crowe declared Martin Crowe Smith as being one of the youngest members of the Fab Four Cricketers from the Test era, along with Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli. On the 30th of December, 2017, Smith scored an batting score in Test cricket of 947, which is the second highest of all time, and only after Don Bradman's record of 961.

In March of 2018, Smith was widely criticised for his oversight of ball tampering in the third Test match against South Africa, during which Smith resigned from captaincy of the team to be replaced Tim Paine. Following an investigation conducted by Cricket Australia, Smith was exiled from all domestic and international games in Australia for a period of one year, beginning at the 29th of March, 2018 and was barred from being considered for any leadership role for a further one year.


Life in the early years and later

Steve Smith was born on 2 June 1989 in Kogarah, Sydney to an Australian father, Peter, who has an chemistry degree, along with an English mother, Gillian. Smith went to Menai High School, but left at the age of 17 for cricketing in England where Smith played in the cricket club of Sevenoaks Vine in the Kent Cricket League. He was so good with Sevenoaks that he got chosen to be part of Surrey's second XI.

Since Smith's mother had been born in London, Smith has dual British and Australian citizenship. In the year 2011, Smith started dating Dani Willis who is who is a law and commerce student in Macquarie University. In June 2017 they announced that the pair were engaged on a vacation on holiday in New York. The couple was married in Berrima, New South Wales on the 15th of September in 2018.

 

Domestic and young career



Smith was part of the Australian team in the 2007 Under-19 Cricket World Cup in Malaysia. At the event, he recorded 114 wickets and seven runs over four games.

Smith made his debut as a first-class player with New South Wales against Western Australia at the SCG on January 25, 2008. Smith scored 33 in his one-hit inning during the time that New South Wales defeated Western Australia without a doubt. Smith played in the New South Wales team that took home this year's Twenty20 Champions League. In the final match against Trinidad and Tobago at Hyderabad, Smith made 33 with the bat. He also took two wickets.

In the 2009-10 season in the domestic league, Smith had a first-class batsman's average of 50 after playing in 13 first-class matches. While his bowling average for first-class in the mid-forties was not as remarkable, his bowling seemed to be improving steadily thanks to a well-publicised coaching program with praise and encouragement by Shane Warne. In the final game of the season, he recorded 7-for 64 on the 2nd wicket against South Australia.
Big Bash League

Smith has made the Twenty20 Cricket debut with New South Wales in a match against South Australia at Adelaide on 1 January 2008, during the six-team KFC Big Bash event. Smith was the most successful wicket-taker in the 2007 Big Bash tournament. He scored four wickets against Queensland and was able to take 9 wickets in total. He was named the second-best player at the competition. In the year 2011-12 The Australian T20 competition became the city-based Big Bash League featuring eight teams. Smith became a part of with the Sydney Sixers and filled in as captain in the event that Brad Haddin could not play because of Test duty and then led the team to victory during the opening season. As an all-rounder Smith, he scored 166 run with the bat over nine games, with an average striking rate of 130.71 which included a half century. When he played his ball, he scored six wickets with an economy pace at 8.06 for each over. He also took nine wickets during the tournament. In the final game, the Sixers defeated the Perth Scorchers by 7 wickets as they chased their target of 157 in 18.5 overs, after the Scorchers were able to score 5/156 over 20 overs. Smith's impressive performance in this season's Big Bash League, attracted the interest of the former India captain Sourav Ganguly. He was invited to join Pune Warriors, the Pune Warriors India team captained by Sourav Ganguly during 2012. Indian Premier League. Smith was also appointed captain for the squad during one game, during which Ganguly was not playing in spite of Australian captain Michael Clarke being the vice-captain. Smith continued to be a part of the same team in 2013 with the leadership of Angelo Mathews.

Indian Premier League

Smith was first purchased from Royal Challengers Bangalore for the 2010 Indian Premier League as a replacement for Jesse Ryder. In the 2011 IPL auction for players and purchase, he was acquired from Kochi Tuskers Kerala for $200,000 however, he was required undergo an ankle surgery and was unable to play that season.

The following season Kochi Tuskers were dropped from the IPL and Smith was offered for auction. Smith was not sold during the 2012 IPL Players Auction, but was later purchased to replace Mitchell Marsh by the Pune Warriors India. In his first game for his new team He scored 39 runs from 32 balls, leading his side to victory over India's Mumbai Indians. He was awarded The Man of the Match Award for his performance.

In the auction of IPL 2014 auction, Smith became the target of Rajasthan Royals for $600,000. Smith was named captain of the Royals during the second half of the 2015 season . He helped the team win important victories, which resulted in an appearance for his team in the play-off portion in the IPL.

In this year's IPL Auction, Smith was purchased by a new franchise called that of the Rising Pune Supergiants for the same amount as the auction before ($600,000) however, he was unable to find his form early on. Smith finally broke through a string of low scores in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, scoring 46*. Smith's form was maintained as Smith recorded his maiden T20 century in the match against Gujarat Lions, scoring 101 out of 54 balls. Then he was able to score 45 more with the Mumbai Indians, before being excluded from the remainder of the competition due to an injury to his wrist.

The Supergiant management decided to remove MS Dhoni as captain and appointed Smith to be captain of the team for 2017. In the opening game of RPS's season with Mumbai Indians, Smith led his team to victory fashion with a score of 84* and was awarded an award for the Player of The Match award. Three consecutive losses however they left the team in the last spot on the scoreboard. An eight-win streak in 10 games contributed to Supergiant finish in second spot and get into the playoffs with Smith being praised for his leadership qualities from well-known cricketers as well as experts like Sunil Gavaskar and Kevin Pietersen. Smith led his team to the finals with an impressive 20-run win over Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 1. Smith's men were up against Mumbai again. He scored 51 runs off 50 balls, but he was unable to take RPS into victory. Pune was defeated just one run. Smith was the RPS's top scorer of runs during the tournament by scoring 472 runs with the rate of 39.33 and three fifties.

In February of 2018 Smith was announced as the captain for Rajasthan Royals for the IPL 2018 season. After his admission that he was involved with the Australian test team's ball-tampering controversy during the third Test played in South Africa in March 2018 the team announced players that Smith has stepped down from the captain's position and Ajinkya Rahane assumed the role of the new captain of the Rajasthan Royals team.

On March 28, 2018, following his ban from Cricket Australia for his involvement in a ball-tampering incident Smith's contract as a cricketer to the Royals was removed at the request of the Board of Control for Cricket in India as Steve Smith and fellow Australian batsman David Warner were banned from playing in their respective teams for the 2018 IPL edition.

In November of 2018, Smith was signed as the captain of Rajasthan Royals for the 2019 Indian Premier League. After losing six of the eight matches in the initial campaign, Smith was appointed as the captain of Rajasthan Royals by replacing Ajinkya Rahane. In the competition, he recorded 319 runs, with average 39.87 which included three fifties.

The auction was unsuccessful. 2022 IPL auctions.