Ashes: Steve Smith returned after cricket ban with a century against England in Ashes on 2nd August 2019. Steve Smith, who served a 12-month ban for his role in the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa last year, marked his return to Test cricket with a gritty century to rescue Australia on the opening day of the Ashes series at Edgbaston on Thursday when Australian team was in a need of partnership miracle.
Australia were reeling at 122/8 against England but Smith defied all odds to take the visitors’ total to 284. Smith scored 144 runs to bring up his 24th Test century in 118 innings and became the second fastest batsman to do so. Only Donald Bradman got his 24th century in fewer innings (66). Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar took 123 and 125 innings respectively.
Moreover, Smith has scored nine centuries in 42 innings and averages over 60 in the Ashes. Five of the nine hundreds have come in the last seven Ashes Tests. Smith after his masterful knock said “There were times throughout the last 15 months where I didn’t know if I was ever going to play cricket again”.
Smith is now equal with Greg Chappell, Viv Richards and Mohammad Yousuf on 24 Test centuries. Only six Australia batsmen have more Test centuries now. Even after the Chaos and boos faced by the crowd after the ball tampering, Smith retained his form and continued batting for six hours.
