Steve Smith’s next move as uncertain as his footwork
The batter once touted as Australia’s best since Sir Donald Bradman hasn’t lasted long enough in his new role as Test opener to get used to that ‘bright red thing’.
“Seven off two. It’s just a bright red thing that I’m not used to.”
We are at the Adelaide Oval nets. It’s three days out from the first Test against the West Indies, Steve Smith’s first at the top of the order. He’d been confirmed as the official replacement for David Warner only days earlier. And here he is having started his first-ever net as a Test opener.
The first ball he faces is punched towards the virtual cover region.
“Three to start,” he tells Usman Khawaja batting in the adjoining net. “If I was batting No.4, that would have gone straight to cover. I like this already.”
The next ball is a full-toss, which he punches straight past the bowler, immediately turning to Khawaja and going, “That’s four. Seven off two.”
Smith is smiling. He’s glowing. He’s loving it. Even Khawaja can’t help getting swept in the enthusiasm as he goes, “Feels like I’m back with Bull (Warner) again,” with a chuckle.
A few balls later, Smith plays a classically brilliant straight drive and starts nodding his head rather furiously. “My best shot yet,” he declares to those around him.
The rest of his session was played out in a similar vein. It felt like watching a kid who’s about to join a new school and is so excited that he can’t wait for it to start.
This is not to say that Smith ever thought it’d be an easy transformation. That opening the batting in Test cricket would be as straightforward as him just showing up. Even if there are few batters in the history of the game to have taken up the challenge after playing a 100 Tests and with an overall average of nearly 60.
He seemed as aware as anyone else it’d require him to be as precise with his technique as he ever has been. Like always, it meant putting in even more work into his batting than usual.
And even in that very first go in the nets against the new-ball in Adelaide, there was a moment when he was filthy with himself after playing a drive that he mistimed and got an outside edge to. He’d wondered out aloud about why his bat wasn’t coming down as straight as expected. “Maybe it’s time for a glove change,” is how he’d dealt with it that afternoon.
But save a couple of innings so far in his new avatar, he’s barely got to his trademark change of gloves. He simply hasn’t lasted long enough. And opening the batting has indeed not been as easy as it seemed during that opening session in the practice area of the Adelaide Oval.
Only twice in seven proper innings at the top has Smith batted more than 30 deliveries: the unbeaten 91 in the unsuccessful run chase at the Gabba and the first innings of this series in Wellington. His two best knocks as opener so far. Yes, the runs haven’t come. An average of 28.5 across four Tests and an average of 12.75 on this tour.
It’s more the manner of some of his dismissals, and more so the way he’s looked at the start of his innings that have raised a few concerns. Especially the highly extravagant shuffling across his crease, which has often seen him play at deliveries on a virtual sixth or even seventh stump. Like he did off the West Windies’ Shamar Joseph’s first Test delivery in Adelaide or even off New Zealand’s Matt Henry after a very good 31 last week at the Basin Reserve.
Walking across his stumps in such accentuated fashion has also left him vulnerable against the straight ball, wherein he gets into positions from where he simply cannot miss making contact with the ball without being trapped right in front of his stumps. Like he did against Kemar Roach in the first innings against the Windies at the Gabba, or on Sunday against Matt Henry at Hagley Oval.
Unlike what a lot of experts have said about his exaggerated shuffle being a plan, Smith ironically is not doing it by choice in the middle. It’s not a technical change he’s made in his new role as opener. If anything, he’s worked on staying stiller than before in the nets. To not go across his stumps. To stay beside the ball and thereby make better decisions with regards to leaving and playing balls on and around his off-stump.
When he was at his peak, a Steve Smith net session was often a preview or a rehearsal of what you’d expect from him in the middle. Unlike how it is now.
Whether it is the adrenaline that comes with facing the new ball or just the pressure that comes with opening the batting against quality Test attacks, Smith seems a lot edgier and more restless at the crease than usual. Ending up a few inches outside his off-stump is the perfect illustration of that.
It’s not so much a case of a batter being unsure of where his off-stump is, but a case of a batter who seems unsure of where he is at the crease. You can see it in the way he seems so uncertain about where he finds himself in relation with the stumps when the ball hits his pads or his body. Both in the nets and in the middle.
This for a batter who historically has prided himself on being so much in control of his coordinates that he’d back himself to umpire LBW appeals against him.
Now, his footwork often seems as unclear as the move from the Australian selectors to side with Smith’s invitation to let him open so that Cameron Green gets to come back into the side at No.4. They’d have been aware it was a gamble that had to succeed right away, or at least in the early going.
They hadn’t quite booked themselves into a hole but surely left the possibility open for an awkward scenario in case it failed or didn’t live up to the mark.
The next time Smith marks his guard in a Test match, eight months from now, Jasprit Bumrah will be waiting at the top of the mark at the Perth Stadium. You doubt whether they’ll be in a position to renege on the call come November.
In an ideal scenario, you’d want to give a new Test opener around six to seven Tests to succeed or to fail before wanting to take a call. That’ll mean at least three Tests into the five-match series against India.
You also do wonder if Smith had given himself an out by opting to open – if it wasn’t to work out or if he didn’t end up enjoying it as much as he thought he would. What with Marnus Labuschagne cemented at No.3 and Green touted to be the long-term No.4.
He could use the off-season to go play some county cricket but facing a new Dukes ball as opener wouldn’t make much sense. Runs in the early rounds of the Sheffield Shield, meanwhile, might not mean much for someone of Smith’s calibre.
Smith has now had four Tests trying to get used to that “bright red thing”. And whether it was the right move or not in the first place, remains as uncertain as his feet do at the crease at the moment.
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