Follow UsSteve Smith is having a great time in Sri Lanka as he not only completed 10,000 runs in Test cricket, but also became only the fourth Australian after Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting to reach the milestone. Only 14 men in the history of cricket have scored 10,000 runs before Smith, and amongst the Australians, only Ponting has done it faster than him.
The 35-year-old also scored his 35th hundred and in the process had a record partnership with Usman Khawaja, which took Australia to a really strong position in the first Test match of the two-Test series in Galle.
However, when asked who could be the fifth Australian to reach the coveted milestone, the Australian skipper had more than one batter in mind.
“It’s a good question,” Smith told Sydney Morning Herald.
“I think there’s a few people that can certainly tick it off. Marnus [Labuschagne] is about halfway there. Travis [Head] potentially. [Sam] Konstas is 19 and he could play for a long, long time potentially.”
However, Smith also added that it’s much tougher now for an Australian batter to reach that number of runs in their career as the new kookaburra ball moves a lot more, and batters have found it tough to score against it.
Given that both Marnus and Head and the younger generation play at least half, if not more, of their Test cricket in Australian conditions, that seems like a hard task to complete.
“100 per cent it’s far more difficult to bat on these surfaces with these Kookaburra balls than it was 10 years ago. There’s no doubt in my mind,” Smith said.
“The stats would suggest that all batting averages [in Australia] are coming down and bowling averages are coming down.
“These wickets we’ve played on probably the last three years have been tough, particularly for top order players. You’ve got to have a lot of luck to score big runs to get 100 in a game and you need some luck.”
Khawaja is, in fact, the closest Australian batter to 10,000 runs with 5365 runs at an average of 44.02. However, he’s already 38, and it’s improbable that he would extend his career beyond the next Ashes.