Steve Smith Career: Test Average 60+, Sandpapergate and the Greatest Ashes Return
The complete career story of Steve Smith — his extraordinary Test average above 60, the 2018 Cape Town sandpaper scandal and one-year ban, his legendary return to Test cricket with 774 runs in the 2019 Ashes series.
Steven Peter Devereux Smith is widely regarded as the best Test batter of his generation and one of the five or six greatest batters in cricket history. Born in Sydney in 1989, Smith began his international career as a leg-spin bowling all-rounder before transforming himself into an elite batter. His Test batting average — consistently above 60 throughout his career, the highest maintained across 100+ Tests since Don Bradman — places him in a statistical category shared by only a handful of cricketers. The year 2018 produced both the lowest point of his career and, ultimately, the platform for its most celebrated chapter.
The Batting Technique: Unorthodox and Unstoppable
Smith's batting technique is, by classical standards, unusual. His stance is open, with a high backlift that goes toward slip or gully rather than straight back toward the stumps. His head position moves significantly during his shot-making. He triggers toward the off side before playing many deliveries. Conventional coaching manuals would identify several aspects of his technique as 'flaws'. Yet the results speak to a fundamental truth about batting: what matters is not stylistic correctness but the ability to get into the right position to hit the ball at the right time. Smith's extraordinary eye, exceptional head stillness at the moment of contact, and deep understanding of his own game allow him to produce technically unorthodox shots with remarkable consistency. His method is also uniquely personal — no other batter has successfully copied it because it is built on reflexes and coordination specific to him.
Sandpapergate: The Cape Town Scandal of 2018
In March 2018, during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town, Australia's Cameron Bancroft was caught on television using sandpaper to scratch one side of the cricket ball in an attempt to produce reverse swing — a practice that is illegal under the Laws of Cricket (ball tampering). It emerged that Bancroft had acted on a plan devised by the 'leadership group' of the team, which included captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner. The scandal, dubbed 'Sandpapergate', caused a national crisis in Australia and resulted in Cricket Australia banning Smith for 12 months from all cricket and two years from any leadership role. Warner received the same playing ban with a lifetime leadership ban. Bancroft received a 9-month playing ban.
The 2019 Ashes: The Greatest Comeback in Modern Cricket
Steve Smith returned to international cricket for the 2019 Ashes in England following his ban. What followed was one of the most dominant individual batting performances in the series' 140-year history. Smith scored 774 runs in seven innings across the five Tests — 144 at Edgbaston, 142 and 92 at Lord's (before being struck by a Jofra Archer bouncer and missing two Tests with concussion), 211 at Old Trafford, and 80 at The Oval. His average for the series was 110.57. England had no answer for him. Australia retained the Ashes 2-2 and Smith was awarded the Player of the Series. The performance was treated not merely as a cricket achievement but as a cultural redemption narrative — the prodigal batter returning to prove his extraordinary ability was the true measure of his character.
Frequently asked questions
How did the ball-tampering scandal affect Steve Smith's legacy and reputation in cricket?
The Cape Town ball-tampering scandal of March 2018 was the most damaging event in Steve Smith's career, and its long-term effect on his legacy is complex, contested, and ultimately unresolved — even years later. In the immediate aftermath, the damage was severe. Smith broke down in tears at a press conference in Sydney that became one of Australian sport's most watched broadcast moments, accepting responsibility and expressing genuine remorse. The public response in Australia was extraordinary — a mixture of deep disappointment, anger, and for some, sympathy for a young captain who had allowed a corrosive team culture to lead to a catastrophic decision. Cricket Australia's punishment — a 12-month playing ban and 2-year leadership ban — was unusually harsh for what was, in technical terms, ball tampering (a serious offence but one that in previous instances had been punished with match bans rather than year-long exclusions). The harshness of the punishment reflected the scale of the public and commercial fallout: Cricket Australia's sponsors were upset, the Board of Cricket Australia received government pressure, and the national team's reputation had been seriously damaged. The narrative shifted somewhat with Smith's 2019 Ashes performance. His 774 runs in the series became, for many cricket fans, evidence that his ability was so far beyond his contemporaries that any attempt to link it to the Cape Town incident was reductive. The extraordinary quality of his batting — particularly the 211 at Old Trafford — reminded audiences why he was considered so exceptional. For many fans, his return confirmed that the ban had been served and the debt to the game paid. However, the legacy question remains genuinely complicated. Smith's record in Tests completed before Cape Town is essentially untainted — he had scored hundreds all around the world and established himself as a generational talent before the incident. But the incident raises a question about character and team culture that statistics cannot address: what kind of leadership environment produced a decision to instruct a junior player to cheat on camera, in a major Test match, against the explicit ethical framework of the sport? Smith has spoken about this in interviews and acknowledged that he should have done more to prevent the culture that led to it. In terms of where he sits in cricket's all-time rankings, most serious cricket analysts and historians include Smith in the top 10 all-time Test batters regardless of the 2018 incident. The Bradman comparisons — invoked because Smith is the only modern batter to have sustained an average close to Bradman's extraordinary 99.94 — are extreme but not absurd. The Cape Town scandal is a permanent asterisk in the story, but the batting record before and after it is so consistent and dominant that it cannot be erased by a single, thoroughly punished lapse.