Australia's Steve Smith joins greats with 10,000 Test runs

GALLE: Australia's Steve Smith joined a select group of batter to reach 10,000 Test runs on Wednesday during the first morning of the opening Test against Sri Lanka.

Smith started the match on 9,999 runs and on his first ball pushed for a single off Prabath Jayasuriya in Galle to be the 15th player and fourth Australian to the milestone.

The stand-in skipper raised his bat to acknowledge the applause from the crowd.

"Fortunately hit that one in the gap so nice to get that one away," the 35-year-old told Australia's 7Cricket.

"Nice to tick that off," he added.

Smith joined fellow Australians Ricky Ponting, Allan Border and Steve Waugh in a list led by India's Sachin Tendulkar, who made 15,921 runs in his red-ball career.

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar was the first to cross 10,000 runs in Test cricket when he achieved the feat against Pakistan in 1987 at Ahmedabad.

Smith is leading Australia in the two-match Test series after regular captain Pat Cummins opted out due to the birth of his second child.

He has an impressive average of more than 55 across 114 prior Tests, including 34 centuries since his debut in 2010. 

Smith started as a leg-spinner who batted at number eight but soon rose to become the number one Test batter and captain of Australia.

Smith is recognised as a modern-day great and part of a famous quartet of new-era batter including India's Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson of New Zealand and England's Joe Root.