Run machine Smith sets his own agenda

Justin Langer says it is impossible to get Steve Smith out in the nets and nobody will be ordering him out any time soon.

The Australian team celebrate victory in the first Test at Edgbaston

Justin Langer says it is impossible to get Steve Smith out in the nets, but nobody will be ordering the batsman out of them as the side celebrates a win in the first Test and prepares for next Wednesday’s second Test at Lord’s.

Basically the man with the 62.96 average is writing his own playbook, setting an example to his teammates and coaches. Smith’s appetite for batting in the middle is mirrored by his insatiable desire to face balls in the nets. It looked as if he faced 100 balls at training for every one of the 426 he faced on his way to 286 runs at Edgbaston.

The English bowlers and brains trust looked impotent against his will and Langer understands their predicament.

“You throw to him in the nets and you literally feel like you can’t get him out and there’s no batsman like that,” the Australia coach said after Smith’s twin tons contrived 286 runs to Australia’s 251-run victory in the first Ashes Test.

“I said during the summer that Virat Kohli is the best player I have ever seen, but that’s just another level. You have in different teams, different eras, great players, but for someone like Smudge — who is averaging over 60 — and the way he played in this innings with all the pressure and everything that is on him …

“It 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.”

Australia captain Tim Paine is equally impressed by the man whose job he assumed last year.

“I think Steve Smith was unbelievable — there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “He’s the best player in the world in Test cricket at the moment. He’s probably the best ever statistically, and while he’s at the crease I think our team’s got real confidence.”

Paine, understandably, excludes Don Bradman from his comparisons as everybody knows none can compare, but veteran English cricket writer Scyld Berry wrote a story that dubbed him the new Bradman.

“Even more extraordinary than his statistics, however, is Smith’s defiance of orthodoxy,” Berry in the paper’s lead sport story.

“Smith bats chest-on when not playing off the front foot against spin, but against pace and when playing back to spin. Bradman refused to drive on the front foot through mid-off which is why he must be Smith’s puppeteer if there is one: the Don similarly set himself up on the back foot to work through the leg side.”

On the eve of their football season England’s papers had cricket on the back and front, bemoaning their fortunes in the Test and their misfortune in having to attempt a way to deal with Smith in this form. Langer celebrated the team’s extraordinary effort to dig themselves out of a hole and win by so much.

“We won,” he said. “That shows incredible character, incredible fighting spirit, whilst we could have picked any of the 17, look at the guys we picked and you go ‘yeah they are all fighters’.

“We’ve got a pretty clear view on how we think we can beat England in this series,” he said.

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