‘We know he can do it’: Reborn Smith bats for Labuschagne

Galle: Steve Smith has drawn upon his own recent resurgence as a reason to keep Marnus Labuschagne in Australia’s top three for the World Test Championship final at Lord’s, but he admits he isn’t sure when Cooper Connolly will get another chance.

Basking in a 2-0 series win in Sri Lanka, the first he has played in, Smith has now made four hundreds in his past five Test matches. It’s the sort of sequence he last enjoyed during the 2019 Ashes, following his return from a year’s ban.

Marnus Labuschagne walks back onto the field in Galle.Credit: Getty Images

In fact, Smith has only once previously scored multiple centuries in successive series: he made two against Pakistan at home in 2016-17, and then three in India in early 2017, which was as well as he has ever batted. Smith put the current run of scores down to a combination of good fortune and improved batting rhythm.

“Even when I wasn’t getting the runs I wanted, I was still saying to all you guys that I was actually batting quite nicely,” Smith said. “Things can turn around quickly, a bit of luck, first innings in the first Test here I got dropped on one and then went on to make it count. Another day I get caught and we’re not having the same conversation.

“As soon as you get that one good score, you get a bit of a read on some bowlers that you’re facing and you just feel a bit more comfortable. That for me was the Gabba I suppose, to get a big one there I started to feel comfortable, facing a lot of balls and getting a bit of rhythm.

“Other than that I can’t really put it down to anything other than having faith in what I was doing in practice and trusting it and knowing the game ebbs and flows. You can have days where the luck’s not on your side, but then you have a bit of luck and then you’ve got to make the most of it.”

To that end, Smith argued forcefully for Labuschagne’s retention in the team, after the 30-year-old compiled an undefeated 26 to help Usman Khawaja mop up the remainder of a slim fourth innings chase in Galle.

“Marn’s similar to me in a way,” Smith said. “Throughout the summer I think he’s actually batting quite nicely and there’s a difference between being out of form and out of runs, and I’ve seen Marnus do it, we know he can do it.

“I don’t think he’s out of form personally. I’ve watched him train and watched him play and a lot of the things he’s done so well are there. Things can turn around pretty quickly. He’d love to score more runs and we’d love him to score more runs, but in my opinion it’s just around the corner.”

Smith found it harder to judge where Connolly would fit in the Test team’s plans over the next couple of years after he played the most peripheral of roles on debut. While Smith conceded that he could have used Connolly’s bowling more, he also pointed to the likes of Josh Inglis, Cameron Green and Sam Konstas among those also jockeying for batting positions.

Steve Smith with Cooper Connolly (left).Credit: Getty Images

Connolly’s most likely goal will be to keep himself in contention ahead of the 2027 India tour, providing his batting and bowling both continue to develop.

“We’ve got some pretty good batters in the side at the moment that have done a good job for a long period of time,” Smith said. “We saw in this game we wanted some extra batting and a guy who could bowl a few overs and I perhaps could have used him a few more overs throughout, but a lot of the bowlers did a really good job too.

“He’s a talented young kid, he’s got a really bright future, everywhere he’s played so far he’s stood up and done a good job. It was a pretty tricky time to come out and bat in the first innings, he was trying to be quite aggressive and get that lead as high as we could.”

The Cricket Australia board will meet this week to decide on the captaincy appointment for the ODI Champions Trophy in Pakistan, and Smith said he was unsure whether he would be captain. He was somewhat cryptic about the elbow problem he stirred up with a throw in the field on the final day.

“It’s alright. I threw one when I shouldn’t have,” he said. “There was nothing on. But it’s hard to, when you’re in the moment, pull yourself back. But it’s better than it was a couple of weeks ago after the Big Bash. Pretty sure it’ll be a pretty quick recovery.”

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