Steel is mentioned in the opening article of the first issue of Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game. Comparing bowlers of the Hambledon Era with those of the 1880s, the editor says that the "old bowling" must, as a rule, have been "quite plain" whereas most modern bowlers attempt to emulate Steel's expertise in "twisting the ball from both sides of the wicket", meaning Steel could bowl both off breaks and leg breaks.[3]
Steel played in the first-ever Test Match in England at The Oval in 1880, then in the famous Test which England narrowly lost in 1882. The mock obituary was published in The Sporting Times saying "R.I.P. English Cricket...the body will be cremated and the Ashes will be taken to Australia".[4]
Soon afterwards, Steel set off for Australia with his Cambridge University friends Ivo Bligh and the Studd brothers George and Charles, and a team they had put together. They toured Australia in 1882–83 and won the agreed series 2–1, thus being given a small urn. They are commemorated by the poem inscribed on the side of the urn:[4]
Steel scored 135 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in a Fourth Test match arranged as an "extra" on that tour, in 1883. Over the whole tour, he topped both the batting and the bowling averages.[5][6]
Steel, who was known by his initials to differentiate him from his brothers, then made his highest Test score, of 148, in 1884 which was the first-ever Test match century scored at Lord's.[7] His name still heads the Honours Board. These efforts led him to achieve the hypothetical number 1 ranking in ICC Test Batsman Ranking in 1884 (he retained it in 1885 as well), well over a century before that meant anything at all. He captained England in 1886 winning all three times – whitewashing the Australians 3–0. His last Test was in 1888, again as captain but losing this one.[8]
He was president of the Marylebone Cricket Club for 1902.[10] His son Allan Ivo Steel played a handful of first-class matches for MCC and Middlesex but was killed in the First World War.[11] Another of his sons, Jack Steel, also died in the war after being washed overboard while on route to take command of HMS Munster.[12]