Steve Smith roared back to form and hit his 27th Test hundred in his first innings of 2021 to equal Virat Kohli’s tally in the longest format. The 31-year-old, who had scored 10 runs in his last 4 Test innings, took three runs off Navdeep Saini on the 201st ball of his innings to reach the three-digit-mark on Friday.
This is also Steve Smith first hundred after September 2019, when he scored 211 against England in Manchester. During the course of his innings, the right-hander also surpassed India captain Virat Kohli’s run tally of 7,318 runs in Test cricket. Moreover, this 1st hundred by an Australian versus India in 7 Tests. The hundred is Smith’s 4th hundred across formats against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). Also, Smith and Kohli have the most number of Test tons among active cricketers now. With this 27th century, Steve Smith equals not only Indian captain Virat Kohli, also former South African captain Greame Smith and Australian legend Allan Border. Smith also became the second-fastest batsman in history to reach 27 Test centuries after Sir Don Bradman who reached the mark in just 70 innings. Smith reached the milestone in 136 innings, ten innings fewer than his contemporary Virat Kohli, who reached the milestone in 146 innings.
