England’s introduction to Australia captain Steven Smith couldn’t be starker to the fearsome batsman they’ll face Down Under over the next few months.
Back in 2010/11, Smith was brought into the Australian squad principally as a ‘jester’, somebody to lift the spirit in the camp as England battered the hosts to win an away series for the first time since 1987.
Whatever he was saying away from the crease, he was certainly a joke on it. Looking all over the place at six and seven, and ostensibly used as a very part-time leg spinner, the joke was on Smith – and certainly on Australia.
That he now stands as the biggest barrier to England retaining the Ashes – which begin at midnight, UK time, on Wednesday – as Australian captain and the leading Test batsman in the world, says much about the character of Smith. His rise has been phenomenal. He’s become obsessive about scoring runs – and he is mightily good at it. England aren’t laughing anymore.
His first taste of Test cricket didn’t last long but since a recall in 2013 he has 20 hundreds in 92 innings, averaging 63. He has also followed iconic captains such as Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh and Allan Border to become Australia’s leader.
Smith is now set for a seismic clash with his opposite number, Joe Root. Alongside India’s Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson of New Zealand, here is a quartet at the top of the world game. The four stellar batsmen on the planet and the focal points of their sides.
Smith is at the head of that list in the Test rankings. Root, the only player to score more Test runs than Smith since 2013 – though he has a worse average at 53 and, remarkably, seven fewer centuries – is number two.
Captains, of course, must do much more than perform as an individual. Root and Smith have huge jobs to do considering both sides look weaker than at any time over the past 20 years. However, given they are the finest batsmen in the world on present form, much depends on which of the two gets more runs.
Worryingly for the tourists, when Smith bats well, he bats big. Root has too often been guilty of missing out on 100s, let alone the 150s and 200s demanded of his players in order to win the Ashes by coach Trevor Bayliss. Smith has no such trouble.
Indeed, only one man has a higher Test average than Smith’s 59 in the history of the game: Don Bradman. He’s also the far more experienced captain, leading Australia in 26 Tests compared to Root’s seven. It’s fair to say both have led by example so far, with respective averages of 69 and 60 as captains – again in Smith’s favour.
Root, of course, has a point to prove. His path to Test stardom was always written from his days as a youngster with Yorkshire and the age-group national sides. And he has hardly put a foot wrong in England colours, earning the Man of the Series award as England won in 2015. However, there is a blot on his copybook as he was dropped for the only time in his Three Lions career the last time England toured Australia. He admits then, in 2013, as Mitchell Johnson destroyed Alastair Cook’s men in a 5-0 whitewash, he wasn’t good enough. The Australian public certainly haven’t seen the best of the 26-year-old, who for four years, has carried the hopes of the English cause – in all formats.
Pressure is something this duo thrives on. Who comes out on top in their individual battle will surely play the biggest role in deciding the destination of the 2017/18 Ashes.
