A superb 50-over player, he will leave a big hole to fill as Australia build towards the 2027 World Cup
Alex Malcolm06-Mar-20252:29
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In 2024, Cricket Australia held a fan poll to rename their One-Day domestic competition after one of it’s greatest 50-over players.Criteria included performances both domestically and internationally. As a current player, Steven Smith wasn’t eligible in the vote (Dean Jones was the worthy winner) but upon Smith’s retirement from the format, it is worth reflecting on a formidable 50-over record that has sometimes slipped under the radar.It is appropriate, whether by design or otherwise, that Smith has bowed out of ODI cricket while still being committed to playing Tests. It allows people to both notice and appreciate how good his one-day career was, given his 50-over record lives in the shadows of one of the most extraordinary Test careers of the modern age. He was pivotal to two World Cup wins. He was twice Australia’s ODI player of the year. His standing among Australia’s best in the format is undersold.Related
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His ODI career was only one year shorter in length than Ricky Ponting’s, yet he played 204 fewer ODIs, which speaks to the proliferation of T20I cricket post 2010 at the expense of the 50-over game and the format’s lesser relevance outside of global events.Purely by average, Smith ranks as Australia’s greatest ODI No. 3. He is also in fine company globally among just six men to average more than 50 at No. 3 in ODI cricket, alongside Virat Kohli, Babar Azam, Viv Richards, Faf du Plessis and Kane Williamson.It was no surprise, then, to read the reactions of some of his team-mates on social media to his sudden exit from the 50-over game. David Warner, a fellow Australia ODI great, said Smith is the “best player I’ve played alongside in my career” without any format caveats.Shane Watson, whose ODI batting record is almost the equal of Smith’s, wrote of how “effortless” Smith made difficult ODI batting look, highlighting the 2015 World Cup quarter-final against Pakistan, when Watson was being “absolutely peppered” by the quickest bowling he’d ever faced, from Wahab Riaz. Smith looked like Neo in at the other end, making Wahab’s bullets stand still as he cruised to a match-winning 64.Two-time ODI World Cup winners – Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Steven Smith, Josh Hazlewood, David Warner, and Mitchell Marsh – strike a pose with the trophy•ICC/Getty ImagesWatson also referenced Smith’s next innings, in the semi-final against India, where he scorched 105 off 93 balls to help set Australia on a path to a home title.Those two innings perhaps best encapsulate Smith’s ODI batting. There is an assumption that his short-form method is just an extension of his Test-match brilliance. He has long been the insurance policy to a poor start, using his technical skill and savant-like game awareness to sum up the conditions, accumulate with minimal risk and set up the innings for others to finish.
High-class No. 3 and 4 batters are like gold dust in ODI cricket. T20 specialists have time and again proven inadequate to handle the range of scenarios those batters face in the medium-length version of the game
But Smith’s ability to move through the gears is underappreciated. He could step on the accelerator when needed and had a greater ability than raise the pace against the opposition’s best bowlers.In that semi-final innings, he dragged Aaron Finch along in a 182-run stand, of which Smith scored 105, as Finch crawled at a strike rate of just 69.82. Australia posted 328 for 7, which proved 95 too many. Smith’s record in ODI World Cup knockout matches is unrivalled. That golden three-match run in 2015 finished with him hitting the winning runs at the MCG.His last three ODI hundreds also showcased his extraordinary range. He plundered back-to-back centuries off 62 balls against India in 2020. In 2022, on an incredibly tricky pitch in Cairns, he made 105 off 131 to help Australia defeat New Zealand in a game where no other player passed 52.Steven Smith was superb at being able to change gears•Getty ImagesHis impact wasn’t just with the bat. Smith’s name does not come front of mind when a list of Australia’s greatest ODI fielders is called for. You couldn’t compile an hour-long highlights package of all his direct hits, like former YouTuber Rob Moody once did for Ponting. But some of Smith’s catching was otherworldly. He was Glenn Phillips before Glenn Phillips at backward point, taking one-handed grabs at full stretch like they were routine.All this from a player who was initially selected as a legspinning allrounder and did not bat in 11 of his first 36 ODIs before his first innings at No. 3. He only bowled 11 times in his last 134 matches thereafter.As captain, his tactical nous was often on display, right up to his final match as he tried to marshal an inexperienced attack against India’s batting behemoths, but a defining moment eluded him. Smith led Australia in 64 ODIs from 2015 to 2025. Only Ponting, Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor and Michael Clarke have done so on more occasions. All five of those captained Australia to a World Cup final and four secured seven titles between them. Smith was the only one to not lead his country in a World Cup. The leadership ban imposed after the 2018 ball-tampering scandal meant he was ineligible for the 2019 edition, and by 2023 Pat Cummins had taken over.Steven Smith made two 62-ball hundreds in three days against India in 2020•Getty ImagesHis ODI retirement can be viewed one of two ways. Optimists are hoping it will extend his Test career. Pessimists would suggest this an indicator that the end is closer than Australia would hope. Smith referenced being committed to the home Ashes at the end of this year but nothing beyond that, despite saying “I feel I still have a lot to contribute on that stage.”The task of replacing him in the ODI side is hard enough without contemplating the cavernous hole he will leave in the Test side. Australia haven’t been able to replace Warner adequately yet in any format. It took two years for Smith to emerge as Ponting’s heir at No. 3 in ODI cricket. Australia only have two years to complete another such search before the next World Cup.High-class No. 3 and 4 batters are like gold dust in ODI cricket. T20 specialists have time and again proven inadequate to handle the range of scenarios those batters face in the medium-length version of the game.Smith was Australia’s ODI Swiss Army knife. Reliable and adaptable. They never went anywhere or succeeded in anything without him. He might never have a 50-over trophy named after him, but it will be very difficult for Australia to win their next one without him.
