THE MIDDLE ORDER
- STEVE SMITH
Call him quirky, unorthodox or unconventional, the 26 year old right handed batsman from New South will keep piling up the runs and conquering records against some of the best teams in business.
The current Australian Test skipper has hit 5 centuries and 4 fifties en route to his 1082 runs in 2015. He averages 49.18 during this period which is a remarkable record anyway, even though it has declined a bit in the latter part of the year. The 2014/15 Border Gavaskar Trophy played down under marked his reincarnation as a Test batsman, where he scored 769 runs at a humungous average of 128.16. Later, he went on to script his maiden Test double century by scoring an effusive 215 in the 2nd Ashes Test at LORD’S; the home of cricket. In a series where majority of his compatriots failed to deliver anything significant, Smith stood out and finished with 508 runs in the 5 match Test series. He is currently ranked No. 1 in the ICC Test Rankings for batsmen, a status he primarily grasped in June earlier this year. A position which has testified to the ascendance of some of the best batsmen to have ever graced the field, Steve Smith has a mountain to climb if he intends to cement his place at No. 3 in the Aussie batting line-up in the near future.
