Birthday special: Graeme Smith – Brave leader, Gritty batsman
The youngest ever cricketer to lead South Africa, Graeme Smith is known as one of the best leaders the cricket world has ever produced. Apart from being the captain who led from the front, Smith was also renowned as a ruthless left-handed batsman who plundered runs for the team and set a solid base for other batsmen to score a plethora of runs.
The beginning
After some stunning performances at the domestic level, Graeme Smith made his test debut for South Africa against Australia at Cape Town in March 2002. He scored 68 runs in the second innings, batting at number three. Meanwhile, he earned recognition during the third Test match against Bangladesh where he was promoted to open the innings with Herschelle Gibbs and played an impressive knock of 200 runs.
Smith had hogged all the limelight during the South Africa tour of England in 2003 as he scored consecutive double centuries, 277 at Edgbaston and 259 in an innings victory at Lord’s. He piled up 714 runs at an average of 79.33 in the series and was rightly adjudged as the joint Man of the Series.
#OnThisDay in 2003, a 22-year-old Graeme Smith struck 259 against England.
No visiting batsman has scored more runs in a Test innings at Lord’s.pic.twitter.com/jc793hsPlc
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) August 2, 2020
Career highlights
Coming to captaincy, Smith was made the captain of the South Africa squad after playing just eight Test matches at a young age of 22. From then on, he led the next 109 Test matches spanning from 2003 to 2014, more than anyone in the history of the game and won 53 of them, once again more than any skipper has ever done.
Some glorious moments of him as a Test captain include winning the Test series against Australia in Australia in 2008-09 and 2012-13. Under him, South Africa topped the Test team rankings by the International Cricket Council (ICC) replacing England. Smith performed fairly in One Day Internationals too as under him the team emerged victorious in 92 matches out of 149 they played.
One of the bravest display of batting from Graeme Smith at Sydney in 2009! Coming out to bat with a broken hand and facing Mitchell Johnson’s 145 clicks deliveries is no joke, especially when all sorts of pressure was on to save the test! pic.twitter.com/YlEL4Zrhwk
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) May 10, 2020
Smith’s captaincy and batting always mirrored his personality, strong, demonstrative and outwardly aggressive. While his records as a captain are stunning, he has even better numbers as a batsman. Smith ended his glorious international career at an age of 33 with 9265 and 6989 runs in 117 Tests and 197 ODIs at an average of 48 and 38 respectively.
