Steve Smith: Is The 'Best Since Bradman' On Decline, A Look Into Numbers

Star Australian batter Steve Smith has not been having best of the times as an opening batter, as his downward slump continued during the first Test against New Zealand in Wellington. During the first Test, he was dismissed for 31 in 71 balls by Matt Henry and then later for a three-ball duck in the second inning by Kiwi skipper Tim Southee. This has added to Smith's lean run that started just during the start of the new ICC World Test Championship cycle.

Is opening really an ideal spot for Smith? Have we seen the best of this maestro in white clothing? One needs to dive into statistics.

Ever since opening, Smith has registered scores of 12, 11*, 6, 91*, 31 and 0, which equals to 151 runs in six innings at an average of 37.75. Though the sample size is really short, Smith still has not looked at his best while opening.

Coming to his overall Test numbers since the start of the WTC cycle 2023-25, they have been pretty underwhelming for someone who is really well the measuring stick to define consistency and greatness in Tests. In 11 Tests under the new cycle, Smith has scored just 718 runs across 22 innings at an average of 37.78, with just a century and four fifties. His best score is 110.

Though he is still the fourth-highest run-getter in the current cycle, he has been outscored by England's Zak Crawley (808 runs in nine matches at an average of 47.52), Usman Khawaja (916 runs in 11 matches at an average of 43.61) and most recently India's young opening sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal (971 runs in eight Tests at an average of 69.35).

During this period, Smith has often failed to make most of his fine starts, often failing in 30s and 40s or without converting a half-century into a century. Also, this whole time, Smith's