Steve Smith: The best batsman in contemporary cricket?

Steve Smith scored an unbeaten 79 for Rajasthan Royals (RR) against Mumbai Indians (MI) in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 to give yet another illustration of his tremendous form. Shiamak Unwalla traces Smith's growth from the ugly duckling who made his One-Day International (ODI) debut in 2010 to the swan who is set to lead Australia in Tests after Michael Clarke’s retirement.

Steve Smith is not a typical Australian cricketer; at least not in behaviour. He rarely engages in confrontations, choosing instead to look away rather than argue. He has not been known to talk back at bowlers. He is not an intimidating batsman; not like Matthew Hayden or Adam Gilchrist. And yet he has been most Indian bowlers' biggest nightmare.

Smith made his ODI debut in 2010, but appeared sporadically and without much success for quite a long time. He had not crossed 50 till his 39th match, and that was in 2014.

Smith had made his Test debut in 2010 as well, but was never a regular till the Border-Gavaskar Trophy of 2012-13. Picked after the infamous "Homework-Gate" incident, Smith played an innings that could be seen as the launching pad his career needed when he scored 92 at Mohali. It was the first time his Test average crept over 30.

Smith was still not a permanent member of the Test side, but he grabbed the chances he got with both hands. An Ashes hundred at The Oval followed soon, and then another at Perth followed by one at Sydney. A century against South Africa at Centurion came next. A couple of fifties against Pakistan at UAE followed. By now it was clear that Smith — despite all his restless shuffling around in the crease — was a batsman to be wary of. At the end of the Test series against Pakistan, Smith had scored 1535 runs at an average of 40.39.

Then came the 2014-2015 series that might well have changed his life forever. Smith scored 162 not out, 52 not out, 133, 28, 192, 14, 117, and 71 in four Tests against India, three of which he captained Australia in. Smith scored 769 runs in that series, and his average rocketed to 52.36.

This had a direct impact on his ODI stats as well. He had scored his maiden ODI ton against Pakistan in Sharjah in October 2014. That proved to be his ODI turnaround, as he went on to score prolifically after that. He averaged just a cut over 20 till that century, with 477 runs in 38 matches. He has played 20 matches since then, scoring 1072 runs with four centuries and seven half-centuries. He hit five back-to-back fifty-plus scores during ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, with scores of 95, 72, 65, 105, and 56 not out. He now averages 40.76 in ODIs, with a strike-rate of nearly 90.

It remains to be seen whether he can sustain this astronomical growth. For now though, Smith may give AB de Villiers a run for his money for the title of 'Best batsman on Earth.'

(Shiamak Unwalla is a proud Whovian and all-round geek who also dabbles in cricket writing as a reporter with CricketCountry. His Twitter handle is @ShiamakUnwalla)