Steven Smith has eased into Michael Clarke’s role as a relentless scorer of hundreds. The captaincy cannot be long in coming too
Daniel Brettig at Lord's17-Jul-2015There was a time, once, when Steven Smith had no idea how to make a Test century. He could make starts – only six times in his first 19 innings was he dismissed before getting into the teens – and by the time of the 2013 Ashes series he was getting past 50 with increasing regularity.But the knack of centuries was eluding him and after he slogged artlessly at Graeme Swann to be out for 89 in Manchester he was at a loss to explain the issue. At the other end his captain Michael Clarke had seemingly made the same process look easy: 187 opposite Smith at Old Trafford gave Clarke 10 in 42 innings since becoming captain in 2011.Johnson hails Smith’s best
Mitchell Johnson has never seen Steven Smith play better than his 215 at Lord’s, and derided those who questioned the vice-captain’s ability to bat at No. 3 in England.
“For him it’s probably No. 1. It was unbelievable,” Johnson said. “There was a lot of talk about Steve not being able to bat in these conditions, which I thought was absolute rubbish in the first place. Because he’s done it in so many different conditions around the world and was No.1 in the world.
“The way he played, it was such a mature innings. To be able to bat with a mature head like Chris Rogers, that was really special. Those guys have got that special partnership … it was probably the best I’ve seen him play a cricket innings.”
Smith concurred, and also said he felt batting first had allowed Australia to drive the game far more effectively than in Cardiff. “I think so, yeah, I was pretty determined to do well this year at Lord’s,” he said. “I haven’t had a great run here with the bat, I was more determined after last week. In the last six months I have got two 190s so it was nice to get that monkey off my back I guess.
“It is a completely different game batting first. You see it with England at the moment, the difference when someone has got 560 on the board. You have just got to approach it a little bit differently and make sure you are not looking too far ahead at what target you are trying to set, stay in the moment and build partnerships and that is what we did in that first innings.”
It was logical then for Smith to go to Clarke in search of additional advice. “He gave me some pretty good words of wisdom,” Smith said in the ECB programme for Lord’s, “just to put it out of your head as much as possible, it’s always going to be there, but try to forget about it. He said to me that for him, 150 is his hundred.”Two matches later, Smith constructed his first against England at The Oval, finishing not out just 12 runs short of the new mark. Including that innings, he has now made 10 centuries in his past 35 innings, a rate of conversion superior even to Clarke’s purple patch. At Lord’s he surmounted the sort of problem any batsman would like to have, passing 200 after falling twice before in the 190s.Smith’s innings at Lord’s was not flawless. An early edge flew at catchable height through where third slip might have been, and on 50 a lower snick struck Ian Bell on the boot before he could close his fingers around it. But what it lacked in polish was compensated in determination and intelligence, showing lessons swiftly learned after a pair of 33s in Cardiff. Also evident is an abiding hunger to stay at the crease, so beautifully balanced with his tendency for the more debonair extremes of strokeplay. By the time Smith was dismissed, he possessed the highest Test average since Graeme Pollock, among those to have played 20 Tests.For most of the innings, Smith was accompanied by Chris Rogers. They provided a contrast in styles but not in concentration, and it was much to the younger man’s credit that this was so. Rogers would never claim to be a talent of Smith’s dimensions but he knows batting like no other man in Australia. The pair are good friends off the field, and Smith has gained much from Rogers’ brief but bright Test career.He gained a lot also from the aforementioned advice offered by Clarke. The yearning to stay at the crease that they spoke about after Old Trafford in 2013 has only grown stronger for Smith, in addition to a sense of batting ownership that also feels like it was cribbed from Clarke. Both men had mentors in their younger days, whether it was Neil D’Costa for Clarke or Trent Woodhill for Smith. But after a period of years they learned to self-correct, and now there is no one who knows Smith’s game better than the man himself.
It looks less and less likely that Clarke’s batting will return to its former heights, a “blip” in form long since starting to look like decline
Rogers’ dismissal brought Clarke to the wicket, and for a time it was possible to observe him and Smith in tandem. As Nos. 3 and 4 it is a sight that will be seen often, as it was in Jamaica during the early part of Smith’s 199. For a long time the apprentice, Smith remains conscious of respecting and supporting the man who mastered this batting lark some years before he did, and there was a deferential nod to Clarke when he arrived.But over the next 67 balls and 21 runs, it was all too evident that these are two batsmen moving in opposite directions, like a pair of friends passing one another on opposite escalators. Smith’s certainty and solidity has now well and truly transcended the jerky and ungainly technique with which he first appeared as a Test batsman. Meanwhile Clarke’s more visibly attractive and artful method has hit a pair of increasingly steep hurdles in uncertainty about his fragile body and worries about the threat of the short ball.Not one of Clarke’s 32 deliveries suggested permanence, and if they served any purpose at all it was to signal that batting need not be all ease and occupation on this pitch. Even so, the struggles witnessed said more about Clarke than they did about the bowling, as Smith continued on his serene way, and the later batsmen Adam Voges, Mitchell Marsh and Peter Nevill all looked far more comfortable.Michael Clarke’s innings was another for the Australia captain to forget•Getty ImagesIn addition to taking on the mantle of No. 3 batsman, Smith is the anointed man to take over from Clarke as captain. No one quite knows the day nor the hour for this handover, though at Cricket Australia there is the memory of Clarke’s overlong period as Ricky Ponting’s deputy and awareness of the discord that stemmed from it.Clarke remains an expert ringmaster in the field, as he demonstrated later in the day to help his bowlers pluck out four early wickets with adept placements to augment swift and swinging deliveries. However it looks less and less likely that Clarke’s batting will return to its former heights, a “blip” in form long since starting to look like decline. Certainly it might help Clarke to move back to his favoured No. 5 position in the batting order, but based on how he played at Lord’s there is little else that can help him. In starting out his innings, Clarke looks almost as lost as Smith once did in seeking to breach three figures.A decision may thus be needed before the year is out. For now, it is up to others to carry the burden of run-making that Clarke himself bore so well for several years. Armed with the advice his captain handed to him two years ago, Smith is doing this better than anyone can possibly have hoped for.
