Steve Smith’s belly button is his cash cow, can England find a solution at Lord’s?

Steve Smith might not realise how much focus there has been on his belly button of late. It’s his safe haven, his cash cow and could lead to 281 runs at Lord’s, writes Robert Craddock.

England, here’s a tip. If you bowl at Steve Smith’s belly button you better be prepared to go belly up.

In fact if England’s quicks bowled every ball at that spot he would, technically speaking, make 281 runs before you got him out.

Smith might not even realise the belly button ball is his safe haven. His cash cow. His automatic teller.

But we do, thanks to modern computer analysis which tells us that a little area above off-stump is his nirvana which he milks to the nth degree.

Australia's Steve Smith celebrates reaching his century

The battle between the seemingly indomitable Smith and an England team looking for clues how to get him out reaches a crucial flashpoint at Lord’s next week with the second Test of the Ashes.

Before the mid-1990s players used to rely on team meetings and gut feelings to hatch match plans but even the public can get in on the act these days.

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Modern players don’t have to worry about those awkward moments like the Australian teams had the 1980s when they met to discuss the Indian team and the room would fall silent when Allan Border said “right … Sunil Gavaskar … any thoughts’’.

Gavaskar was a man without a flaw.

These days the stats boys will always come up with something.

Statistics analysis firms like CricViz present remarkable insights into the game and their young analyst Ben Jones has taken Smith’s game apart, piece by quirky piece, for a forensic report which England surely must read.

There’s no sense of randomness about Jones’ work. He deals in cold hard facts.

With no pretensions it is an easy task, here are Jones’ main options for Smith …

P lan A: Try a slow left-armed spinner (such as a Jack Leach).

The thinking: Smith’s average against this type of bowler is just 35 runs per dismissal, the lowest of all bowlers and they also slow his scoring rate.

Plan B: Bounce him early.

The thinking: Smith has no great issue with short balls but the stats show when he is bounced in the first 30 balls he averages just 27. But once he gets going … goodnight.

Place C: Try and tall, pacy seamer like Jofra Archer.

The stats show Smith has no fear of raw pace, but bowlers who deliver the ball from Archer’s height 2.15m or higher have a good Test record against him, and an exceptional one when they put their best work in a tight channel outside off-stump.

CricViz gives England a few spots try but, just as significantly, what not to try such as off-spin, a style against which he averages more than 90 runs per innings.

Smith has been in sublime form so far this Ashes series

England’s plans for Smith could stretch all the way to the condition of the match strip.

When England were tested by Ireland on a greenish deck at Lord’s last month the common cry was this was not the track England wanted against Australia.

Suddenly, green monsters are back on the menu.

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One way of tackling Smith’s brilliance is to juice up the deck and back your batsmen to out-scramble Australia’s top order.

It’s a risk but a greater risk is preparing a lifeless deck that allows Smith to slip into “I’m here till Sunday’’ mode.

THE GOOD: The national cricket selectors deserve praise for choosing one of the bravest Test teams of recent times and hitting the jackpot in the first Ashes Test. The outcry if Australia had lost with Starc and Hazlewood sitting on the pine would have been deafening.

THE BAD: Josh McGuire’s “facial’’ to David Fifita which will see him facing a four-week suspension for his third contrary conduct charge this season. Will he ever learn?

THE UGLY: The Cowboys-Broncos game on Thursday night was to rugby league viewing what Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes was to the movie industry, a total stinker which was compelling viewing because it was so poor.

Originally published as Steve Smith’s belly button is his cash cow, can England find a solution at Lord’s?