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Steve Smith has reestablished his form in Test cricket, as the Australia batsman scored his 36th century in the format on Day one of the 1st Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. In these innings, Smith, who is captaining Australia in the absence of the regular skipper Pat Cummins, became only the 4th Australian to surpass the milestone of 10,000 Test runs. Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra appreciated Smith, noting that he currently stands at 10,140 runs with an average of 56.33 across 115 Tests. Chopra observed that Smith now has 5 more Test centuries than Virat Kohli, although Kohli has played 5 more innings.
"Smith has scored a century (against Sri Lanka). He has struck his 35th century in just 205 innings. (Joe) Root has scored 36 hundreds but he has played 278 innings. So if you look at it in terms of the strike rate, the number of innings he takes to score a century, then Steve Smith is ahead of Joe Root," stated Chopra on his YouTube channel. Furthermore, Chopra also pointed out that Kohli now has the lowest average compared to his contemporaries in the Fab 4—Smith, Joe Root, and Kane Williamson.
"If I see Virat Kohli here, he has played 210 innings, which means he has played five more innings than Steve Smith and has five centuries fewer than him. So Virat Kohli, unfortunately, now has the worst strike rate because he has scored only three centuries in the last five years," Chopra elaborated.