Steve Smith scores his 10,000th Test run, Australia is 145-2 at lunch on 1st day vs Sri Lanka

Steve Smith scored his 10,000^th Test run to put him in elite cricket company and Australia was 145-2 after winning the toss and batting on Wednesday in the first test against Sri Lanka.

Smith needed only one run on Wednesday to achieve the milestone. He was 2 not out at lunch along with opener Usman Khawaja, who was unbeaten on 65. Smith was on 9,999 career Test runs when he was dismissed in the fifth Australia-India Test in Sydney earlier this month.

Smith became the 15^th player in Test cricket, and fourth Australian, to score 10,000 runs in a career. He brought up the milestone on his first delivery, skipping down the wicket and punching a single to mid-on.

Ricky Ponting (13,378), Allan Border (11,174), and Steve Waugh (10,927) are the other Australian batters to have scored 10,000 runs in a Test career. Sachin Tendulkar is the leading all-time Test scorer with 15,921 runs.

Earlier Khawaja and Travis Head made the most of spin-friendly conditions in Galle, crafting half-centuries.

On a surface expected to favour the spinners, Australia’s batters countered with positive intent, regularly finding the boundary and forcing Sri Lanka to spread the field. Head, in particular, was in a punishing mood, reaching his half-century in just 35 balls, leaving Sri Lanka scrambling for answers.

Khawaja, in contrast, adopted a more measured approach, playing with patience while rotating the strike. The duo stitched together a commanding 92-run opening stand before Head fell for 57, caught at long-on off Prabath Jayasuriya.

Sri Lanka struck again when Marnus Labuschagne departed for 20, courtesy of a sharp catch at slip by Dhananjaya de Silva, handing leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay his first wicket of the match.

Smith is captaining the Australian side in the absence of Pat Cummins, who is on paternity leave. Australia recently won a five-Test series against India in Australia which qualified it for the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s in June.

The second Test in the two-match series begins on February 6, also in Galle.