Image: Steve Smith narrowly missed reaching 10,000 Test runs, falling short by one run / © Telegraph India
Australia’s star batsman and former captain, Steve Smith, missed out on reaching the 10,000 Test runs milestone by just one run during the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Smith, who had a solid series with two centuries, was dismissed for 4 by Prasidh Krishna, leaving him on 9999 runs. This milestone would have made him the fourth Australian cricketer to achieve it, joining the ranks of Allan Border, Steve Waugh, and Ricky Ponting. He said:
One run hurt a little bit at the time, but it’s all good. It would have been nice to tick that off in front of all my friends and family at my home ground, but hopefully, I can knock it off first innings in Galle. But I think it’s a different story with 10,000 because there have only been a handful that have done it. It just shows the longevity of the game and the consistency over a long period of time. It will be a cool one to tick off. I feel like I have been batting nicely for a while now. Even before I scored the hundreds, I said to you guys (the media) that I was batting nicely and hitting the ball well. I think there’s a real difference between out-of-form and out-of-runs, and I think I was out of runs. A couple of good scores were cool to contribute to the team’s success over the summer.
While the near-miss was a disappointment, Smith expressed that the team’s victory and the series win were more important. He acknowledged that reaching 10,000 runs would have been special, particularly at his home ground in front of family and friends.
Smith stated that he wasn’t particularly chasing milestones but acknowledged the significance of the achievement, which reflects consistency and longevity in the game. He hopes to achieve the feat in the upcoming Sri Lanka-Australia Test series in Galle.