John-John Smuts is his full name. He is a cricketer from South Africa. He is an opening batsman and popular in his country’s cricket fraternity for one of the most clean-hitting and entertaining batsmen.

He was born on 21st September 1988 at Grahamstown in Cape Province. He started playing the game when he was only six years old. His brother Kelly Smut was also a professional cricketer. Along with his batting, Smuts is also a left-arm spinner.

JJ Smuts had begun his journey in first-class cricket in 2007 in the Provincial Challenge competition for Eastern Province. But he failed to impress, scoring only 7 runs in his debut. Still, he was selected in the under-19 South African team for the under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka. Smuts' excellent 58 not only guided his team towards the final of the championship defeating Pakistan in the semifinal match but also helped him to earn the man-of-the-match award. However, South Africa lost to India in the final. Smuts also was of the members of the South African squad that won the Emerging Players' competition in Australia in 2010. Still, Smuts had to wait for long 10 years to break the hurdle and place himself at the international level. of the game. Even though Smuts proved his nerve, being on the fifth spot of the leading run-scorers in first-class competitions in 2011 with an average of 43.64, he did not receive the call for the senior national squad.

JJ Smuts made his debut in the One-Day International in the 1st ODI against England at Cape Town in February this year. Smuts, batting at number five, remained 7 not out having played 11 deliveries including one 4. Smuts has so far played in 5 ODIs and scored 163 runs where his highest score has been 84.

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JJ Smuts made his debut in Twenty20 International in the 1st T20I against Sri Lanka at Centurion in 2017. However, Smuts had already been establishing himself as one of the specialists in the limited over and in the shortest format of the game. He placed himself in the third position among the top run-scorers in the One-Day Cup with 592 runs with six fifties at an average of 59.20. His big-hitting gradually became major anxiety for the bowlers in the shortest format of the game. Having acquired a contract in CPL in 2016 Smuts was the leading run-scorer in the South African domestic T20 competition in 2017 that took him to the South African T20 squad. However, in his maiden T20I Smuts was not able to impress, being out for 13 runs only having played 8 balls. Smuts has participated in 11 T20Is so far and scored 166 runs with an average of 15.09 where his highest run has been 45. Besides, Smuts has played in 146 T20 matches and scored 3481 runs with 3 centuries and 17 fifties.

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