Steven Smith: 'Didn't know if I was going to play again'

Australia's Steven Smith en route his 144 on Day One of the 1st Ashes Test against England at Edgbaston on Thursday. Pic /Getty Images

Birmingham: Australia's Steven Smith said he had contemplated the end of his career after marking his first Test since a year-long ball tampering ban with a superb century on the opening day of the 2019 Ashes.

The tourists were struggling at 17-2 here on Thursday when Smith walked out to bat and they later collapsed to 122-8. But Smith, ignoring the repeated boos of the crowd, made 144 in a total of 284 after Australia won the toss.

Smith's 24th Test century was his first international hundred since he returned to Australia duty during a World Cup where he made 85 in last month's Edgbaston semi-final defeat to England. "There were times throughout the last 15 months where I didn't know if I was ever going to play cricket again," Smith told reporters.
"I lost a bit of love for it at one point, particularly when I had my elbow operation.

"It was really bizarre that it was the day I got the brace off my elbow, I found a love for it again. I don't know what it was, it was like a trigger that just said 'right I'm ready to go again, I want to play and I want to go out and play for Australia and make people proud and just do what I love doing'."

Smith and David Warner were both given 12-month bans for their roles in the scandal in South Africa, while Cameron Bancroft was suspended from international duty for nine months.

"I know I've got the support of the boys in the room and, for me, that's all that really matters," said Smith.

"They went berserk on the balcony when I got to my hundred and just looking up at them, it sent shivers down my spine," he added.

Dad rates Steven's ton up there with the best

Melbourne: He stood firm when his son broke down and Peter Smith says he is finally letting emotions get the better of him now that Steven Smith's remarkable resurrection from a one-year ball tampering ban seems complete with an Ashes hundred.

"...this one, given the context of all that has gone to get to that point now, and he played under a lot of pressure as people fell around him - that probably made it. If it's not his best, it's way up there," Peter told The Telegraph.

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