Steve Smith

Steven Peter Devereux Smith (born 2 June 1989) is an Australian international cricketer and former captain of the Australian national team in all three formats of the game.

He is widely regarded as one of the best Test batsmen since Don Bradman, as well as one of the best in all formats in the history of the sport.

Steve Smith was born on 2 June 1989 in Kogarah, Sydney to an Australian father, Peter, who has a degree in chemistry, and an English mother, Gillian.

Smith attended Menai High School, and left at age 17 to play cricket in England where he played club cricket for Sevenoaks Vine in the Kent Cricket League.

He did so well for Sevenoaks that he was picked to play for Surrey's second XI.

Because his mother was born in London, Smith has dual British and Australian citizenship.

Steve Smith was a member of the Australian team at the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup in Malaysia.

In the tournament he scored 114 runs and took seven wickets in four matches.

Smith made his first-class debut for New South Wales against Western Australia at the SCG on 25 January 2008.

He scored 33 in his only innings as New South Wales defeated Western Australia outright.

Smith made his Twenty20 cricket debut for New South Wales in a match against South Australia at Adelaide on 1 January 2008 during the six team KFC Big Bash competition.

Smith was the leading wicket taker at the 2008 Big Bash tournament.

He took 4/15 against Queensland and finished with 9 wickets overall.

He was also named the second-best player of the tournament.

He was part of the New South Wales team that won the 2009 Twenty20 Champions League.

In the final against Trinidad and Tobago at Hyderabad, Smith made 33 with the bat and took two wickets.

By the end of the 2009–10 domestic season, Smith had a first-class batting average of over 50 after 13 first-class matches.

While his first-class bowling average in the high forties was not as impressive, his bowling appeared to be steadily improving following some well-publicised mentoring and praise from Shane Warne.

In the final match of the season he took 7 for 64 in the second innings against South Australia.

Although he was initially selected for Australia as a leg-spinning all-rounder in 2010, Smith plays primarily as a batter who bowls occasionally, often to break a partnership.

After playing five Test matches from 2010 to 2011, he was recalled to the Australian Test team in 2013 and took over the captaincy from Michael Clarke in late 2015, after which he predominantly batted at number 3 or 4 across formats.

In 2011, Smith started dating Dani Willis, a commerce and law student at Macquarie University.

In 2011–12, the Australian T20 competition became the city-based Big Bash League featuring eight teams.

Smith joined the Sydney Sixers and filled in as captain when Brad Haddin could not play due to Test duties, subsequently leading the team to victory in the inaugural season.

As an all-rounder, he scored 166 runs with the bat from nine matches with a strike rate of 130.71, including one half century.

In 2014, New Zealand batsman Martin Crowe described Smith as one of the young Fab Four of Test cricket along with Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli.

Smith was a member of the Australian teams that won the 2015 and 2023 Cricket World Cup, the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup, and the 2023 ICC World Test Championship final.

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.

On 30 December 2017, he reached a Test batting rating of 947, the second-highest of all time, only behind Don Bradman's 961.

He has captained in 4 Tests (including Australia's only Test victory in India since 2017 when he was captain) and 7 ODIs, winning the 2022-23 ODI series vs India and the 2023-24 series vs West Indies as captain since his return.

Since 2021, he has been Australia's vice-captain in Tests.

He was ODI official vice-captain from 2021 to 2023 while also standing in as ODI captain in 2024, despite no longer being official ODI vice-captain.

In January 2024, Smith moved from No.4 in Tests to opening the batting, having had success previously opening the batting in the IPL, BBL and for Australia in T20Is and ODI warm up matches.

In June 2017, the couple announced their engagement while on holiday in New York.

In March 2018, Smith as captain was widely criticised for the ball tampering in the third Test against South Africa that Cameron Bancroft performed and David Warner planned, during which he stood down from the team captaincy 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 starting from 29 March 2018, and from consideration for any leadership role for an additional year.

In November 2021, he made his Australian captaincy return in the 2021–22 Ashes series when Pat Cummins was unavailable.

The couple married at Berrima, New South Wales on 15 September 2018.

Smith supports the Sydney Roosters in the National Rugby League.