Comment: Steve Smith becomes the only Aussie under 30 to score a hundred in past two tours

A six off Jonathan Trott helped Steve Smith become the only Australian under 30 to make a hundred in the past two series.

Steve Smith, welcome to an exclusive club.

His maiden Test century against England at The Oval yesterday makes Smith the only Australian aged under 30 to score a hundred during Australia’s past two tours across nine Tests.

Amongst those cheering when the 24-year-old brought up three figures with an audacious six down the ground must surely have been Australia’s selectors.

"At last!" they would have cried. For all the opportunities given to a multitude of players during the two years Clarke has been captain, a batsman from the next generation may have finally put up his hand.

There have been false dawns before. Phil Hughes is also only 24, has three Test hundreds, and is dizzy from being spun in and out of Australia’s revolving door.

Matthew Wade, 25, has two hundreds from 12 Tests but was dropped for this series after a poor tour of India.

Smith’s 138 not out on the second day of the fifth Test gave him 338 runs for the series at an average of 42.

He is now the fourth Australian to made more than 300 and average better than 40 and, most significantly, the only player aged under 32 behind Michael Clarke, Shane Watson and Chris Rogers.

So Smith’s magnificent milestone should not be seen as an end in itself but a new beginning.

Steve Smith

The start of his career as a regular Australian batsman which, depending on how many stars and planets align, could take him all the way to the office of captain in the post Clarke era.

That is a long way off but at the moment there are no obvious long term leadership candidates.

The only other player in Australia’s top six under 32 is David Warner and given his recent excesses he would not be left in charge of a biscuit tin.

But one step at a time. Smith's significant improvement has come from a tighter technique against fast bowling and better shot selection.

The worst shot in this innings was to his very first ball, when he aimed a windy woof at a wide delivery outside off stump.

Windy woofs have brought his downfall on important occasions in the past, mostly notably in the last Test when he failed twice with soft dismissals which loosened his grip on a place in the side.

But the self belief Smith showed to lift the gentle medium pace of Jonathan Trott so cleanly down the ground at the most important moment of his short career was exceptional.

The selectors deserve credit for choosing Smith on the tour of India earlier this year.

They picked him on a hunch because of his positive attitude and light feet against spin despite a modest Sheffield Shield season.

Indeed, after what appeared to be a breakthrough season four summers ago when Smith made four Shield hundreds, he has made just one since.

But he played the last two Tests in India, averaging 40 when Australia lost 4-0, and has steadily improved during this series.

Now Smith, like Watson, needs to make another big hundred when it really matters, at the start of the return series in Australia.