The age of Steve Smith: an awkward display of genius in all its history making glory

Savour this moment, don’t miss a second. We are witnessing the career of one of the most imperious cricketers ever to pull on a Baggy Green, one playing a different game to those around him.

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Wake up the kids, or don’t let them go to bed.

Get them around a TV, or their phone.

We’re witnessing something special, batting genius in all its awkward, brilliant, unfathomable, history making glory.

Steve Smith is compiling a cricketing career now being spoken about with equal reverence to the only man who, by all available numbers, could be considered better than him.

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The air of inevitability about Smith’s century that gripped Old Trafford was the same sense spectators must have had when Sir Donald Bradman came out to bat.

Steve Smith has taken his game to a new level since returning from his year’s ban.

It was almost unquestionable he’d get another 100, a ridiculous notion for cricket in 2019.

But from ball one the English bowlers, not just at Old Trafford but through all three Tests Smith has played, have hardly landed a blow he couldn’t handle.

Except that one at Lord’s.

But his bounce back was supreme, and they weren’t able to touch him, trouble him, rattle him, confuse him or scare him, hard as they tried, in all manners they have tried.

He’s been playing a different game, which has become staggeringly apparent given the struggles of everyone else around him, on both teams, maybe Ben Stokes aside.

Smith’s lowest score this Ashes series is 92 - and that was in a match where he was seriously concussed.

But even the heroic England all-rounder has a zero on his run chart this series.

Smith hasn’t been out for less than 92, and even then that was an effort cut down by such a blow at Lord’s that he had to miss the next Test.

It’s far too simple to pile up the “Smith is the fastest to this” or “now has the most that” records as a statement of how good he is, how good he has been.

His deeds demand greater exaltation.

Bradman was the source of inspiration for his entire country during some of its darkest days.

Smith is at the centre of redemption for a team sent plummeting to the depths of a despair all of its own making just 18 months ago

Smith appears to operate on a different level to his peers playing the game today.

As a captain he was to blame for the fall. He was banished for his part.

But as a brilliant batsman, resurrected after a year so dark even conceded he may not have seen the light, he has become the beacon for a new generation of hope.

Books detail Bradman’s greatness, sepia toned newsreels of his deeds fill a museum that bears his name. There was even a song written about him.

After his darkest days Smith has stepped in to brilliant light in England in this Ashes series.

“Our Steve Smith” is more likely to be a trending hashtag.

But however it’s captured, this era, this display of sheer cricketing dominance will live well beyond this time, and this team.

We are still talking about Bradman 70 years after his last innings.

We should all enjoy Smith now, you never know if you’ll see anything like it again.

Originally published as The age of Steve Smith: an awkward display of genius in all its history making glory