Steve Smith reveals the best batter he has played against, and its not Virat Kohli

Australia's Test batting mainstay has revealed the best batter that he has played against and surprisingly, it is not the Indian skipper and his long-time batting rival Virat Kohli but Kohli's predecessor and the one whom the 'Captain Fearless' not only admires but also considers as his role model.

Steve Smith's Instagram Q&A

"I have to probably say, Sachin Tendulkar. Loved watching him as a kid and then playing against him was pretty special. I think I actually got him out of the first ball I had bowled to him. Caught bat-pad with a top-spinner. So, that was a pretty special moment", said Steve Smith during a recent Instagram live session.

Steve Smith, who is a part of the modern-day 'Fab 4' in world cricket and arguably the best Test batsman of this generation had started his career as a leg-spinner and in fact, he had dismissed the Master Blaster with the only ball that he ever bowled to the latter in international cricket.

The incident took place during Australia's 2012/13 tour of India for the iconic Border-Gavaskar trophy. It happened in India's first innings of the third Test match at Mohali's IS Bindra Stadium in March 2013.

Sachin Tendulkar attempted to defend one off leggie the delivery bowled by Steve Smith. However, the ball made contact with his pads after it took the inside edge of his bat and went straight into the hands of Ed Cowan who made no mistake and completed an easy catch at short-leg. Tendulkar walked back to the pavilion for an 81-ball 37 and his innings included five boundaries. 
India won the contest by six wickets and comprehensively registered a series win by whitewashing Australia 4-0.

The records that Sachin Tendulkar proudly continues to own to-date

Sachin Tendulkar scored 774 runs in his debut Test series, a record that is still unbroken. He was also the first batsman to go past 29 centuries scored by Sir Don Bradman. He is still the only Indian batsman to score hundreds in both innings of a Test match three times.

Meanwhile, Steve Smith does not boast of having a fourth innings century as of now.