Stats: Steve Smith pile up records at Edgbaston on his Test return

Steve Smith exhibited his class in the longer format with twin hundreds during the first Ashes Test which is his first appearance in a Test match in 16 months. At a venue where Australia have not won an International match in 18 years, the former skipper and No.1 Test batsman amassed 144 and 142 in respective innings. His ton in the first innings helped Australia recover from 122/8 and finish on 284 while the 2nd ton in this game helped the visitors set a target of 398 for England.

All the major stats and records created by Steve Smith in his comeback Test at Edgbaston

4 – Steve Smith became the first player with two 140s in a Test match. Overall, he is only the 4th player to score 140+ runs in both innings of a Test match. Allan Border scored 150* and 153 in the 1980 Lahore Test against Pakistan; the only instance of a player scoring twin 150+ scores in Test cricket.

Andy Flower (142 & 199*) against South Africa in the 2001 Harare Test and Tillakaratne Dilshan (162 & 143) in the 2003 Chattogram Test against Bangladesh also had twin 140+ scores.

5 – Smith is only the 5th Australian and the 8th player overall to score centuries in both innings of an Ashes Test. The last player to do so was Matthew Hayden in the 2002 Brisbane Test match.

6 – Smith has scored 50+ runs in each of his previous six innings in the Ashes. He is only the 2nd player with six consecutive fifty-plus scores in the Ashes. Mike Hussey had 50+ scores in six consecutive innings across 2009 and 2010/11 Ashes.

9 – The former Australian captain now has scored a century and a fifty-plus score in the same Test match on nine instances. Only Jacques Kallis (11) and Ricky Ponting (10) have done it more than Smith. Allan Border and Kumar Sangakkara also scored a century and a 50+ score in a Test on nine occasions.

10 – The 2nd innings ton was Smith’s 10th hundred in the Ashes; the 4th player to hit as many as ten Ashes tons. Australia’s Sir Donald Bradman and Steve Waugh scored 19 and 10 tons in Ashes respectively while England’s Sir Jack Hobbs hit 12 tons.

119 – Smith now has 25 centuries in Test cricket from 119 innings; the 2nd quickest to record 25 Test tons. Sir Donald Bradman is the fastest to achieve this feat as he scored his 25th Test ton in his 68th innings.

140 – Smith scored 140+ in each of his last three innings in Test cricket in England. He is only the 2nd player to achieve this feat as Kevin Pietersen had scores of 158, 158 and 142 across three innings in 2005 and 2006 at home.

Overall, Smith is the 6th visiting player to score a hat-trick of Test tons in England. The last of the previous five players was Rahul Dravid during the 2002 tour. In fact, Smith and Dravid are the other player with a hat-trick of Test hundreds in England in more than 40 years.

286 – Runs aggregated by Steve Smith in this Test match; the most by an Australian in England in 55 years. Bob Simpson aggregated 315 runs during the 1964 Manchester Test when he scored a triple century. In this span, Smith is the only Australian with 250+ runs in a Test in England. He also scored 273 runs in the 2015 Lord’s Test where he struck 215 in the first innings.

1998 – The last instance of an Australian scoring as many runs as 286 (Steve Smith in this Test) in an away Test match was back in 1998. Mark Taylor amassed 426 runs in the Rawalpindi Test in 1998 where he scored 334* and 92 respectively against Pakistan.