It was today June 2 Australian cricket captains Steve Waugh and Steve Smith were born. Waugh turns 51, and Smith is 27. Both went through same cricketing growth in International cricket.
They started their international career as a bowling all-rounder, than got dropped from the national squad. They went back to domestic cricket altered their batting technique. Waugh abandoned his hook shot, instead he re-modeled his back foot technique, to go back and across. Smith on the other hand refined his technique with an abbreviated shuffle, and a precise follow-through.
With sheer weight of runs both were back in the Australian national side. Soon they became deputy and eventually led Australia in all format.
Here is some fascinating resemblance in their performance.
Waugh scored his first Test century on June 9th 1989, just few day after Smith was born (2nd of June in Sydney). It was Waugh’s 27th Test, a match played at Leeds during the 1st Ashes Test against England.
Waugh was 24 years old, Smith too scored his first Test century at same age and also in England(The Oval) in his 12th Test.
Here is a stats analysis of their leadership in all format.
| Steve Waugh (June 2, 1965) | Games | Steve Smith(June 2, 1989) | ||||
| T20 | ODI | Test | All format | Test | ODI | T20 |
| Never led | 106 | 57 | Mts | 11 | 15 | 8 |
| Never led | 67 | 41 | Won | 7 | 10 | 4 |
| Never led | 35 | 9 | Lost | 0 | 5 | 4 |
| Never led | 3 | 0 | Tied | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Never led | 7 | Drawn | 4 | |||
Australia's International performance (1989-2016)
It was in 1989 that Australia started their process of domination which slowly faded in 2008…..after few lull years, in 2013 they regained their dominance.
| In below graph orange curve is the success rate of Australia(all format) since 1989. The blue bar is No.of Int.matches played by them. Both captains leadership is red marked. S Waugh from(1999-2004) and from 2014 it is S Smith. |
|---|
 |
| All data updated before tri series in WI( June 2016). |
