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Opinion

Is Steve Smith Australia's best captain?

Roar Rookie
19th June, 2020
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Roar Rookie
19th June, 2020
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Aussie cricket fans, the big question on your mind right now is who will be the captain of the Aussie team at the T20 World Cup.

Steve Smith, the great Aussie captain, has led Australia to a number of series wins. But Aussie opener Aaron Finch took on the captaincy role after the former was banned for a year for ball-tampering in Cape Town along with ex-vice-captain David Warner.

Their posting in the team was taken. They returned in 2019 for the World Cup and showed their class again. But still, Cricket Australia didn’t give them their captaincy roles back.

On the other hand, the Indian Premier League franchises that they represent (Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad) have given their captaincy roles back to them.

They have scored a pile of runs after their ban. While Steve Smith scored 379 runs in ten innings in the World Cup, David Warner scored 647 runs in ten innings. Steve Smith scored a massive 774 in seven innings with an average of 110.57 in the Ashes in 2019. David Warner had a nightmarish Ashes series.

Steve Smith’s captaincy record is 47 wins from 93 matches. Also note David Warner was leading the Aussie national team in the shortest format of the game, T20s.

Steve Smith

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

The ball-tampering scandal
In March 2018 in Cape Town, Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were accused of ball-tampering. Cricket Australia handed one-year bans to Steve Smith and David Warner, while Cameron Bancroft was handed a nine-month ban.

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They later felt sorry and regretted their actions and apologised for their unsporting actions. After the ban they said the ban was a learning curve.

The television had shown Bancroft taking a yellow substance to rub the ball. When questioned about it he said it was nothing but yellow tape to remove the dust on the ball. The umpires examined the ball and found no evidence of ball-tampering.

They neither offered a change of the ball nor penalty runs, instead the match continued. After the match, while they were investigating the incident, it was found that Bancroft was using sandpaper to tamper with the ball. The three had accepted their mistake and were handed bans by Cricket Australia.

Smith’s record-breaking Ashes
Steve Smith had an impressive Ashes series by scoring 774 runs in seven innings with an average of 110.57. He had to miss three innings due to concussion. He had a ball hit his helmet while facing Jofra Archer.

Smith’s scores in the Ashes were 144, 142, 92, 211, 82, 80 and 23. He had only one score below 50 with three hundreds. During this series, he entered an elite club including Sir Don Bradman for the most number of runs in an Ashes series.

Warner’s amazing World Cup
David Warner scored 647 runs in ten innings. He is the third Aussie batsman to score more than 500 runs in a single World Cup. He had a blistering average of 71.88 during the World Cup.

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David Warner just lost the race for the most runs to the Indian opener Rohit Sharma, by just a narrow margin of one run. His 166 against Bangladesh was the highest score in the whole World Cup. He also scored 692 runs with nine 50-plus scores.

Now let’s wait for Cricket Australia to decide.

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