'Tough to get past that' - Australian team chooses Steven Smith's favourite knock ahead of latter's 100th Test

Star Australian batter Steven Smith will be playing the 100^th Test of his career during the third Test of the Ashes 2023 at Headingley, Leeds starting Thursday, July 6. Smith is hailed as one of the best Test batters of the modern era having over 9,000 runs to his name. Ahead of Smith’s special Test, members of the current Australian team revealed their favourite knock by the former Australian captain.

Usman Khawaja, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green and Travis Head sat down and unanimously chose Smith’s magnificent twin hundreds during the first Test of Ashes 2019 at Edgbaston as his best. Smudge, as he’s lovingly called by his teammates, scored 144 and 142 respectively in two innings to announce his return to Test cricket after a year-long hiatus.

In a video released by cricket.com.au, several members of the Australian cricket team can be seen reminiscing about Smith’s sensational innings and praising him for his tremendous fortitude. Notably, Smith made a return to Test cricket following his 12 months ban by Cricket Australia for his involvement in ball-tampering during the Cape Town Test in 2018.

Watch the video here:

"I've seen him play some good ones"

Ahead of his 100th Test at Headingley this week, we asked Australia's Test squad to pick the best innings they'd ever seen from Steven Smith ... and there was a clear winner 🙌 #Ashes pic.twitter.com/9UF2RwODta

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) July 3, 2023

Upon his return, Smith was subjected to boos from the Edgbaston crowd as he made his way to the pitch. However, he didn’t let any of it affect him and bailed Australia out of trouble as they were reeling at 122/8. The New South Wales-born batter scored a phenomenal 144 to take Australia to 284 in the first innings. 

He further scored 142 in the second innings and helped Australia win the match by 251 runs. The batting maverick finished as the highest run scorer of the series as he plundered 774 runs in seven innings at an average of 110.57 with three fifties and three hundreds to his name.

Meanwhile, Smith scored a magnificent 110 in the recently concluded second Test of the Ashes 2023 at Lord’s and was awarded Player of the Match in Australia’s 43-run victory. Having won the first two Tests, Australia are leading by 2-0 in the five-match series and will be eager to seal it with a win at Headingley in Smith’s 100^th Test.