Steve Smith Bids Goodbye, As A Bloody Good ODI Batter

Steve Smith will go down as, by some distance, the best Test batter of his generation and among the top five batters to have ever played Test cricket. 

As he bids goodbye to ODI cricket, you cannot say the same about Steve Smith the ODI batter. 

But know this: he’s exiting the format as a bloody good ODI player, a batter who, at his very best, was capable of single-handedly influencing games and dragging his side to victory.

Smith leaves the ODI field with 5800 runs, an average of 43.28, 12 hundreds and two World Cups. And he was directly responsible for his country winning one of those World Cups, back in 2015 in their own backyard. If you’ve already forgotten about it, Smith, in the 2015 WC, smashed five consecutive 50-plus scores to power Australia to the title. That was the phase where he was truly him.

Also Read: Steve Smith Retires From ODIs After CT 2025 Exit

Now, admittedly, Smith’s overall numbers look good but not great. But what If I told you that he is, indeed, one of the finest No.3s to have ever graced ODI cricket? 

In ODI history, there are 12 batters who have scored 4,000 or more runs batting at No.3. Among them, only four have managed to average over 50: Virat Kohli, Babar Azam, Kane Williamson and Smith. 

It’s not that Smith, in ODIs, was as good as the other three in the list or better than those in the list with a lower average than him. But it’s the kind of stat that tells you he was an incredible ODI batter in his own right. 

2015 World Cup And The Semi-Final Knock That Sealed His Legacy

Any review of Smith’s ODI career is incomplete without talking about the 2015 ODI World Cup, the crowning moment of his 50-over career.

After *that* loss against New Zealand in Auckland, Smith, batting at No.3, went 95, 72, 65, 105 and 56* to ensure that he dragged Australia to the title. 

Also Read: Test Cricket Still Priority: Smith Explains Why He Retired From ODIs but not Tests And T20Is

That 105 (93) against India in Sydney will unquestionably go down as his finest ever ODI knock.

There, India entered the semis unbeaten — unlike Australia — and got the danger man David Warner cheaply inside three overs. The pressure was completely on Australia being the hosts and favourites, and the side’s back was fully against the wall when Smith walked in. 

We all know what ultimately happened from this point, but I’m not sure how many people really remember just how much Aaron Finch was struggling at the other end when Smith walked in, dazzled and wrestled back the momentum from India.

Finch was 12 off 30 balls at one point, fighting for dear life. He couldn’t hit the ball off the square and looked like a man who’d forgotten how to bat. Smith had to score — for his side — both his runs and Finch’s, and that’s precisely what he did. Australia were 64/1 at the end of the 12th over, and the scores of the batters were as follows: Finch 14* off 32 balls, Smith 35* off 33 balls. 

Smith literally breathed life into both Australia and Finch’s innings and well, the rest is history.

Given the context, this match-winning ton in the semi-final is still among the best knockout innings ever played in recent World Cup history. Arguably the most underrated. 

A Big-Match Player Who Loved Biggest Of The Stages 

In a way, it’s fitting that Smith’s last ODI came in a knockout match in which he top-scored for the side. That perfectly encapsulates what he was in ODIs, a big match player who, almost always, stood up when his side needed him and was in trouble.

No Australian player in history has as many 50+ scores in ICC ODI knockout games as Smith (5). In fact, only two other men have 5 or more fifty-plus scores in ICC ODI knockout games, and they are the two greatest ever batters to have picked up a bat and played ODI cricket - Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. 

And Smith needed only 7 innings to notch up those 5 fifty-plus scores. SEVEN.

The only knockout games in which he didn’t cross 50? The semi-final against South Africa in 2023 where he scored a match-defining 30 on a bowler’s paradise that was worth a 50, and the final against India in the same World Cup where, well, he was technically not out. 

That Week In 2020 Where He ‘found his hands’

If there is one week that could sum up Steve Smith the cricketer, it’s probably the final week of November 2020. In the lead-up to the three-match ODI series against India — that preceded the 2020/21 BGT — Smith had declared that he had ‘found his hands’.

"It's hard to explain but it just hasn't quite been right until probably two days ago, I found a little something and everything just clicked in. I had a big smile on my face after training the other day, because I walked past Andrew McDonald and said 'I found 'em again', I was really excited,” he said at the start of that week.

By the end of that week, Smith had smashed CONSECUTIVE 62-ball centuries against an Indian attack that featured Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja and Yuzvendra Chahal, no less. 

You can fluke your way to a 62-ball hundred once in your life perhaps but twice? In consecutive games? Against such a quality attack? 

It was an extraordinary week that truly showcased just how dynamic a batter Smith was in ODIs. 

Smith’s Decision To Quit ODIs: An Understandable Call

Across 2020 and 2022, Smith hammered 1,107 runs at an average of 65.11 and a strike rate of 92.55. It truly felt like he’d hit a new level in ODI cricket and, at that point, the right-hander finishing his ODI career with an average close to 50 did not seem fully impossible.

Yet as it turned out, he would never rediscover that golden touch again. 

After capping off an extraordinary 2022 in which he averaged 67.37, Smith did not play ODIs for four months. He batted twice against India in the three-match ODI series in March 2023, and did not play an ODI once more for another six months. 

This near year-long gap seemed to permanently take away his rhythm in the format as, post that, Smith averaged 37.43 across the next 28 ODIs he played, during which point he won a World Cup but had a very middling tournament, averaging just 33.55.

He did not score a single ton during this period, and while he did show glimpses of his best — like he did in the knock against India in Dubai yesterday — you could see that the cutting edge was missing. 

It is no surprise, then, that Smith has indeed walked away from ODI cricket. For one, the ODI World Cup is two years away, and it will be impossible for him to juggle across three formats considering he will be turning 36 in a few months’ time.

Giving up Test cricket, where he’s still among the best in the world and has found a second wind, was never going to happen. And Smith has made it clear that he’s eyeing the 2028 LA Olympics (in T20 format), so playing T20 cricket makes sense for both that and financial reasons. After all, why should Kohli (IPL), Williamson and Root (both SA20) have all the fun, eh?

So it makes total sense for Smith to give up 50-over cricket, a format where he’s achieved pretty much everything. Champions Trophy was the only title missing from his CV, and with another CT not in sight — probably ever — it was a rather easy decision for Smith to walk away.

For Smith, then, giving up ODI cricket is a relief. But the real tension begins for Australia now. They haven’t managed to replace David Warner yet, and Smith has now walked away. We’re not too far away from Glenn Maxwell hanging up his boots in this format too.

Uncomfortable days ahead, but there’s plenty of time left for Australia to get the transition right. 

For now, they can take some time out and celebrate the career of one of the finest ever cricketers to have worn the Green and Gold.