It is hard to believe that when Steve Smith began his Test career against Pakistan five years ago, he batted at No9. Later that year, when he made his Ashes debut against England in Perth, it also seemed he had been brought back in the side more for his ability to crack a joke than his cricket skills.
“I’ve been told that I’ve got to come into the side and be fun,” Smith said before Australia’s 267-run win at the Waca in December 2010. “Whether it be telling a joke or something like that. It’s to make sure we’re all upbeat and we’re ready to go. I think that’s something I can bring to this side.”
Smith appeared to be the type of bits-and-pieces all-rounder so beloved by England during the dark days of the 1990s. A latter-day Gavin Hamilton, if you like. So when Usman Khawaja made the most over-hyped 37 in the history of the game on debut in Sydney a month later, Smith’s maiden Test half-century went almost unnoticed as England wrapped up their first series victory in Australia for 24 years.
Now, while Khawaja fights to save his career after sustaining a knee injury that will keep him out for nine months, Smith, still only 25, is the joker in Australia’s pack for all the right reasons.
Handed the captaincy when Michael Clarke’s knee injury made him miss the final three Tests of the recent series against India, Smith has blossomed spectacularly. In an astonishing run of form he hit centuries in four successive Tests, amassing 769 runs overall as he overhauled the 67-year record set by Don Bradman for the highest aggregate scored by an Australian in a series against India.
It means Smith, scheduled to captain Australia for the first time in a one-day match when he stands in for the suspended George Bailey in the Tri-Series against England in Hobart on Friday, is not only set to be his country’s key batsman at the forthcoming World Cup but also the main threat to England during next summer’s Ashes series.
The rapid progress during what is being called the “Summer of Smith” has been staggering. “I feel pretty good,” he said. “I’m just loving playing cricket at the moment. I want to keep playing as much as I can while I’m in this kind of form.
“Two years ago I decided I wasn’t going to bowl as much and start to try to work on my batting. I thought that was the best way to get back into this Australian side and that decision has helped me. I feel like I’ve been getting better every day in the last 18 months and hopefully there’s still a lot of improvement left in me to keep scoring runs and winning games for Australia.”
Looking back to the 2010-11 Ashes series, Smith said: “I’ve certainly improved as a player. In my last 12 to 18 months I’ve really focused on my batting. I’ve tightened up my technique and got my temperament right and I’m in a good place mentally. I feel really good at the crease at the moment and hopefully there’s some more big runs for me at the end of this series and in the World Cup as well.”
Beyond that is the Ashes, Australia hoping to follow up last winter’s 5-0 series whitewash with their first Test series win in England since 2001. Smith could even captain Australia during that series if Clarke’s chronic knee injury deteriorates further.
Yet asked whether he would prefer to win a World Cup on home soil or break Australia’s 14-year Ashes duck in England, Smith was emphatic. “They’d both be nice,” he said. “I don’t have to choose, do I? I’m not choosing just one. We’re going to get both, hopefully.”
One man who has trodden a similar path to international stardom is Ian Bell. The 32-year-old was lampooned as the Sherminator when he first locked horns with Australia in the summer of 2005 and the return series in 2006-07, another whitewash.
Yet while the actor Chris Owen, who played the original Sherminator in American Pie, is currently a sushi waiter in Los Angeles, Bell has established himself as England’s answer to wasabi – strong, capable of making a forceful impact and leaving those he encounters wishing they had experienced a little less of him.
Starring at the top of England’s one-day batting order, Bell, whose three centuries played such a pivotal role in the 2013 Ashes victory, is primed for an important 12 months of international cricket. “It’s a big year for the England cricket team,” Bell said. “Test cricket after this winter is huge. We have a tour of South Africa as well, which is going to be a massive challenge.
“Over the next 12 to 18 months there’s an amazing opportunity to win some big series and big trophies. That’s where you want to be as an England cricketer.”
