When Sourav Ganguly discovered a Gem for Australia: Steve Smith a leg spinner who became No.1 batsman

Steve Smith a leg spinner who became No.1 batsman | It was a year of 2010, & Australian newspapers were filled with bulletins regarding this new Australian spinner who was considered favourite by Legendary Shane Warne (Australian Leg spinner). This new Australian spinner has taken 2 wickets in his T-20 debut match against Pakistan & was looking promising. Same month that spinner has to travel to West Indies to play series.

CricInfo, a leading sports journal, published an article describing how no leg spinner has shown mark in the game of cricket after Shane Warne, whether its Stuart McGill, Danish Kaneria or Cameron White.

So, this newcomer was Steve Smith, who had 2 centuries in his name while playing for New South wales. Still he was better known as an effective Leg spinner in the parlance of cricket rather than a batsman. However, smith gave runs at an average of 8 in his debut T20 match.

How Smith met Sourav Ganguly?

After not that shining start in International Cricket, Steve smith came to India to play IPL. Bangalore Royal challengers team bid for him, but he didn’t get chance to play that year. Then next year he played for Kochi Tuskers, but unfortunately due to knee surgery he was not fit to play.

Steve Smith’s career turning point came when he was signed by Pune warriors. In 2011 season of IPL, Sourav Ganguly was signed by Pune warriors for replacement of Aashish Nehra. Due to non-availability of Yuvraj Singh that year, Dada was made captain of the Pune Warriors team. Sourav Ganguly had seen Steve Smith playing for New South wales in Champions League T20, so he advised management of Pune warriors to bid for Steve Smith exclusively. Steve smith was not the only Australian player whom Pune warriors signed that year, the other one was Michael Clark.

Till that time Steve Smith was not regular in Australian team, However Sourav Ganguly had full trust & faith on him as a captain. Even Smith proved dada right, but his real moment of fame came on May 5^th, 2012, it was 47^th Match of IPL 2012 season & Pune Warriors were playing against Kolkata knight riders, Kolkata knight riders won the toss & elected to bat. Kolkata knight riders made 98 runs in first 10 overs without losing a wicket. After Gautam Gambhir & Mc Cullum partnership got over in 13^th over after dismissal of Gautam Gambhir hitting half century, next over Mc Cullum also got out.

Murli Karthik delivered next over, when Yousuf Pathan hit a shot on the long wide in, that shot was so powerful & long that it assumed to cross the boundary any day, however it didn’t cross the boundary line. Yes, you guess it right, there was Steve smith who jumped in to catch the ball with his single hand & when he realised that his body will fall over the boundary line, he threw ball back inside the boundary line before falling. With his spectacular fielding he saved precious 4 runs for his team & that was the first time when world observed this wonderful player & he got into fame & most of the Indian fans still remember him even after 8 years of that moment.

In the same season when Sourav Ganguly took take break for 1 match, he appointed Steve smith as captain despite of presence of senior & more famous Michael Clark in the team, who was Vice Captain of the team at that time. Apart from other exceptional qualities of Sourav Ganguly, the most remarkable quality was to identify talent & give chance to the talent.

There is one more famous incident of Steve Smith when he was doing captaincy for Sydney sixes in the big bash league in 2011-12, that time senior leg spinner Stuart McGill was not happy with his fielding position. He told this to Steve Smit & denied standing in that fielding position, that time Smith said “Look mate, I am your captain. Whatever I will ask, you must follow my orders, now go & stand in your fielding position”.

 Steve Smith Journey in Australian Team

Australian team toured India in 2012, & smith got chance to play third Test Match. He scored 91 runs in that Test match. However, Australian team lost that series by 4-0. Steve Smith played two ashes series afterwards & scored 345 runs in his first ever Ashes.

In 2014, demise of best friend Philip Huge shattered Steve Smith, he lost his interest to play cricket anymore. At that time his girlfriend Dani Willis helped him to recover & even operated bowling machine for Steve to bat. After some time, they both got married.

In 2014-15, Steve Smith scored 769 runs in test series against India & in 2015, after retirement of Michael Clark, Steve Smith was appointed as Captain of Australian Cricket team. Steve Smith did Captaincy of Australian team for 3 years. In 2018, ball tempering incident happened against South Africa in a series & Steve Smith got banned for 1 year. It was tough time for Australian Cricket. He came back strongly after 1 year of suspension & scored 775 runs in 2019 Ashes. He performed better in World cup 2019 at an average of 27.

A player who debuted for Australian team as a Leg spinner has now become Number 1 Test match batsman in the world. Many sports veteran has compared him with Sir Don Bradman due to his terrific average of 62.8 in Test matches.