Right from his childhood days Steve Smith dreamt of playing for Australia as a batsman and becoming the best. During his teenage days the legendary Shane Warne had just retired leaving a big void in the spinning department. Smith could roll his arm around and bowl leg spin too. Hence, the cricketing fraternity in Australia convinced Smith to turn into a leg spinner for they saw an opportunity for him to cement his place as a leg spinner. The confused youngster listened to the experts and focused on his bowling. He made his test debut as a leg spinner and could not make an impact. Eventually he was dropped from the national team.
After days of introspection he decided to give up the option of being a spinner and focus exclusively on his batting. Coaches ridiculed Smith for they could never imagine of Smith breaking into the Aussie middle order with his unconventional technique. But Steve decided to turn deaf to all the advices and kept scoring mountain of runs in the domestic cricket which eventually led him to be chosen as a batsman.
Rest is history. He averages 62.31 in Test cricket only next to the Greatest of all Sir Donald Bradman for batsmen who have played over 25 test matches.
The world saw a mediocre leg spinner in Smith while he himself saw a world’s best batsman in him. His biography would have read “Another Leg Spinner” but his autobiography today says “World Class Batsman with an unconventional technique.”
The world can script only your biography but you and you alone can write your autobiography.