Analysis: Australia affords Steve Smith rare luxuries – you bet he’s worth it

Deep into his 30s, Steve Smith is afforded luxuries rarely given to any Australian cricketer. On day three against the West Indies, he showed just why he is worth it.

Steve Smith has proven himself the finest cricketer ever to emerge from the baseball cages of New York.

Of course that is being facetious, but Smith’s unorthodox pitstop in the city that never sleeps – just as he famously doesn’t during Test matches – is the type of allowance that would probably not be afforded to lesser players.

Nor would just anyone have been allowed to rock up to the Caribbean three days before the first Test because he’d been playing a Twenty20 game in Dallas, as had been the plan until his finger injury in the World Test Championship final.

Cameron Green and Steve Smith provided the backbone of the Australian innings. Picture: AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan

Or miss a late-season Sheffield Shield match because he was in the US – albeit he wasn’t the only Australian Test player absent from the Shield in March.

If Smith doesn’t quite make up his own rules, they are certainly malleable for the 36-year-old future legend. But who could argue this approach isn’t working?

It was around this time last year that debate raged as to whether the former captain would continue as Test opener after his four-Test trial the previous summer after the retirement of David Warner, a move that Smith had wanted.

When Smith was shifted to the top, part of the spin had been around allowing Cameron Green to bat at his preferred No. 4 spot, a move that was beginning to reap rewards for both player and team when the West Australian made his unbeaten 174 at Wellington less than a couple of months later.

After Green’s back injury ruled the all-rounder out of the Test series in India last October, selection chair George Bailey claimed that Smith had “expressed a desire to move back down from that opening position.”

Smith, seemingly not pleased by the idea that Australia was contorting its batting order to suit his fussy ways, clarified the following week that No. 4 had been his preference, but not a demand.

“I said I’m happy to bat wherever you’d like me to bat,” Smith said at the time.

Only Smith, the selectors and captain Pat Cummins are likely to know how the conversation really panned out.

If the panel bent to Smith’s will, it can hardly be blamed.

In any case it is all a bit of a moot point. Since dropping back down the lineup, Smith is averaging 49.26 with the bat, including four centuries, and on day three in Grenada became the first Australian to pass 70 for the series.

Steve Smith has been back to his best since returning to no. 4 against India in the summer. Picture: William West/AFP-

He had arrived in the middle during a stop-start morning with Australia 3-28 and still vulnerable following the removal of nightwatchman Nathan Lyon.

Green and Lyon had at least managed to bat for nearly 12 overs, ensuring Smith would not have to confront a dangerous new Dukes. These weren’t going to be easy runs on a pitch generating dramatic variable bounce and against a five-pronged West Indian pace attack that had more than held its own across the series to that point.

Down the other end, Green took another step forward, even if this was far from his most fluent innings. At times he still poked too liberally outside off-stump, but by and large he applied himself well to reach his first half-century as a Test No. 3 before chopping on.

But as he so often has over the years, Smith made it look like a different game. Regularly gesticulating to himself about the vagaries of the St George’s wicket, he summed up the conditions, watering down his pronounced shuffle to guard against the devilish conditions and play beautifully on both sides of the wicket.

A 37th Test century had beckoned until he fell the wrong side of an umpire’s call lbw shout from Justin Greaves on 71.

The struggles of Josh Inglis in Barbados served as a reminder of the frailties of an Australian Test side sans Smith, who has retired from one-day international cricket, allowing him to cash in on an increased franchise cricket load.

If all this is what it takes to keep Smith going in Test cricket, then it is worth it.

As he prepared in the nets before play on day three, he politely asked an onlooker for the time. 9:47am it was, ahead of a scheduled 10am start. He kept batting for a few minutes longer. Australia should take heed: make every second of greatness count.

Originally published as Analysis: Australia affords Steve Smith rare luxuries – you bet he’s worth it