Steve Smith celebrates after scoring his 21st Test century
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting belives that current skipper Steve Smith has the potential to become one of the best batsmen the sport has ever seen.
Ponting’s comments come after Smith scored his 21st century during the first Ashes Test against England in Brisbane, which the Baggy Greens won by 10 wickets.
Smith was named Man of the Match for his knock as his unbeaten 141 helped Australia clinch a slender first-innings lead.
“Twenty-one hundreds in 57 games, he’s well and truly on track to do that,” Ponting said on ABC radio on the fourth morning in Brisbane. “When you look at the way he went about it yesterday, he was just completely unflappable. He didn’t get out of his bubble at all, through the course of that innings, which says a lot about him.
“I’ve watched him pretty closely, you can just tell he’s hungry to lead his team well and he wants to be the best player that there has ever been. He’s got a game now that is standing up to the best attacks in all conditions, all around the world. If he keeps trending the way he is, then absolutely.
“Think about the greats – the Tendulkars and the Kallises and these guys that have scored 15,000 and 13,000 runs, but they played in 150-plus Tests, Tendulkar 200 Tests, to achieve what they achieved. He’s nearly halfway there in just over 50 Test matches.”
Ponting was Australia’s captain when Smith made his Test debut against Pakistan at Lord’s in 2010, but when the 28-year-old began his career, he was seen as leg-spinning all-rounder. Even Ponting admitted that he never thought Smith would go on to become such a talented batsman in such a short period of time.
“I don’t think any of us did, really,” Ponting said. “He’s clearly the number one ranked batsman in the world right now. We all knew he had talent, because he used to do things a bit differently. He would go to the nets and [you] throw him a pull shot, and he’d hit it straight back at you almost like a tennis shot. It’s all different and unorthodox, but there’s a certain amount of talent that goes with that.”
With Smith’s passion on full display when he brought up his century, Ponting hopes that the younger players and recalled members in Australia’s side play with the same level of emotion and intensity.
“We saw the emotion that came out of him afterwards, banging his chest and his heart and his crest,” he said. “But if I was sitting in that dressing room as a young bloke — as a Bancroft or a Shaun Marsh coming back in, or Tim Paine — I wouldn’t have needed to see that at all.
“I would have been inspired by what I had seen in 520 minutes at the crease, and going up and down through the gears, and playing a role that was so specific to what the game needed. It was a leader’s innings, and he’s put his mark down on the series at the first possible opportunity.”
However, Ponting conceded that he would like to see Smith bowl more often.
“I still wish he’d bowl a few more leggies every now and then as well because he can bowl those and bowl those well,” he said.