Steve Smith against the two Indian spinners has been one of the best battles of the past decade. How battle against Ravichandran Ashwin has been talked about but his rivalry against Ravindra Jadeja is equally as great. These two have played against each other for a decade and the number of balls that they have played against each other is remarkable. Both in Test Cricket and ODI Cricket, they have pushed each other to the limit.
Steve Smith
Steven Smith still has a few years left to play In international cricket. He has been the best Test batter in the world. He has so far played in 109 Test Matches. He has an amazing average of 57 in Test Cricket. He has scored 9685 runs and he has hit 32 Test Hundreds as well as 4 Double Hundreds in Test Cricket. He is only 34 and he has at least 25 Test Matches left in him which means he will cross the 11,000 run mark soon. He has also played in 158 ODIs for Australia. He has made 5446 at an average of 44 with 12 hundreds in ODI Cricket. He has made a total of 16000+ international runs which includes 1000+ runs in T20IS. He has also made 44 International hundreds so far.
Ravindra Jadeja
Ravindra Jadeja is one of the most important parts of the Indian team and he has been for a decade. His bowling was great but it is his batting that has made him such an important member. He has so far played 72 Test Matches for India. He has scored 3036 runs at an average of 36.14 and he has hit 4 centuries in Test Cricket. He has taken 294 Wickets in Test Cricket at an average of 24.08. He has taken 13 Five Wicket Hauls and 2 times he has taken 10 wickets in a Test Match. He has also played in 197 ODIs for India and he has made 2756 runs at an average of 32.42. He has taken 220 Wickets in ODI Cricket. In the 66 T20IS he has played he has taken 53 Wickets. Therefore he has made more than 6000 international runs and 577 wickets. Check here the best T20I performances by Ravindra Jadeja
Head to Head
Ravindra Jadeja has bowled 735 balls to Steve Smith in Test Cricket. Steve Smith has hit 170 runs against Jadeja and he has been dismissed 8 times. In ODI Cricket, Steve Smith has faced 188 balls from Jadeja and has made 222 Runs while being dismissed 2 times.
Memorable Encounters
Their first Memorable Encounter was in the 2017 Test Series in India. It was the first Test Match and in the second innings Steve Smith made a brilliant hundred. He was dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja at 109. Jadeja bowled 79 balls to Smith out of the 202 he faced.
Their next memorable encounter was in the 2023 Test Series in India. It was the 4th Test Match. Steve Smith hit 38 runs in 135 balls but was dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja. This was a legendary battle as Jadeja bowled 30 balls to him and it was a battle of skills.
In ODI Cricket, one of their most epic encounters was in the 2020 ODI Series where Steve Smith was in great form. Jadeja was not able to dismiss Smith. In the 3rd ODI, Steven Smith made 131 runs from 132 balls . Out of these Jadeja Bowled 27 balls.
