England in awe of Steve Smith, the ‘new Don’

Seventeen months after the heartache, Steve Smith stopped the world. Again.

Steve Smith of Australia celebrates after reaching his century during day four of the Ashes Test between England and Australia at Edgbaston.

Steve Smith has stopped the world. Again. Seventeen months on from the heartache, it is his brilliance and resilience capturing headlines and hearts.

The English newspapers are calling him the new Bradman; Tim Paine says he is the best in our lifetime; Justin Langer says he is Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting, but the pressure he was under on return elevates his performance above them all; Sachin Tendulkar is singing his praises; and even US broadcaster CNN is reporting on his feats.

Smith says his return to Test cricket was like “Christmas every day”.

MORE: Peter Lalor writes Australia tries to figure out a way to squeeze Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood into the playing XI for Lord’s | Justin Langer says insatiable Smith has no peer

A world that woke up to the scandal in South Africa in March last year has now woken to news of the batsman’s brilliant return­ to the game. A century in the first inning­s, another in the second, and an average of 62.96 put him second only to Don Bradman across the history of the game.

The London Telegraph applauds the new Bradman

Langer, who played with Border­, Waugh and Ponting, is stunned by his achievements: “The way he played in this ­innings, with all the pressure and everything that is on him … was not only great skill, but enormous character, enormous courage, very brave, unbelievable concentration, unbelievable physical stamina, unbelievable mental stamina, all traits of great players.”

His captain, Paine, believes Smith is improving with every Test and “can only get better”.

“He’s the best player in the world in Test cricket at the ­moment,” he said.

England papers have Ashes front and back. It’s not good news. pic.twitter.com/DV4pOITZgp

— Peter Lalor (@plalor) August 6, 2019

Smith is an enormous headache for England, but the English are promising they will try again in the second Test.

“He’s got to start again when he gets to Lord’s,” England’s One-Day captain­ Eoin Morgan said after the 286-run thrashing.

“We’ve got to make sure that we make it very difficult for him. When we get our chance early on, we’ve got to take it. When he gets in and it’s not doing a huge amount, he can be difficult to remov­e and he made it very difficult for us in this game. We’ve got to make sure we don’t have any hangover of how he’s played and gone about this.

“It’s a new week, new ground, new conditions, and we’ve got to make sure all the bowlers are very clear on how they want to ­approach getting him out.”

The bad news for England is that when Smith visited Lord’s in 2015 he scored a double century.

The Indian cricket legend Tendulka­r has 30 million Twitter followers and he took to it to celebrate the Australian’s return to the game.

“Well played Smith,” he wrote. “What a way to make a comeback to Test cricket.”