Steve Smith sometimes finds himself surprised by the shots he plays. It’s not that he’s surprised by their success or failure, but by the fact that he played them at all. In those moments, he looks down at his hands and his bat, as if they have betrayed him. It’s like a rider looking at a backfiring motorbike or a difficult horse. There’s a duality to Smith’s performance, as if he’s acting out this concept for the audience.
Yesterday in Manchester, Smith delivered one of those surprising shots. It was his first ball of the fourth Ashes Test, and it seemed ordinary, nothing special. But instead of letting it pass by, Smith swung at it with a circular dragging motion, as if he was in the middle of the Amazon trying to lift a large python into a small boat. If the ball had been bowled at a faster pace, it might have gone for six. But with the slower pace of Chris Woakes, it only landed at deep square leg. Luckily for Smith, no fielder was positioned there, and the ball cleared Mark Wood for four. Smith looked at his hands in disbelief, questioning what he had just done.
This version of “Bizarro Smith” is not new. It has surfaced before in other innings. One notable example was at Lord’s in 2019 when he returned to the ground after being hit in the neck by Jofra Archer. Despite the injury, Smith hit three boundaries, left a straight ball that would have hit the stumps, reviewed an lbw decision, and walked off before the result was announced. There have been other instances, like Dharamsala in 2017 and Old Trafford in 2019, where Smith played unconventional shots and achieved remarkable results.
In Manchester, Smith’s first shot was just the beginning of a day filled with unusual shots. He played a back-foot square punch to a wide ball from Stuart Broad, with an absurd level of difficulty and his hands far from his body. He faced five dot balls from Jimmy Anderson carefully and then threw a wide cut shot on the sixth, which ended up passing gully. He even walked across his stumps and made sweet contact with a yorker outside leg stump. By lunch, he had scored 33 runs off 34 balls. It was clear that his hands were taking charge.
But this “not-Smith” version is still a part of Steve Smith. It may contradict the rest of his playing style, but it emerges often enough to be considered a part of the whole. It usually shows up when Smith is overtaxed or fatigued, or even concussed. His peak performance requires intense concentration, which is difficult to maintain with little rest between matches.
In recent times, Smith has struggled to reach that level of concentration consistently. However, he managed to do so in the World Test Championship final, where he calmly accumulated runs in ones and twos. He also displayed control during his century at Lord’s this series. But overall, his performance has been inconsistent. He has been dismissed in unconventional ways, such as attempting to slog spinners or getting out lbw to seam bowling. It’s understandable considering Smith’s age and the mental and physical toll of being at the top for so long.
Despite these challenges, Smith’s Ashes record continues to grow. He now has the second-highest number of Test runs by a visiting player in England, surpassing Viv Richards and Allan Border. He also surpassed Border’s record for all Ashes runs in the previous match. Only Jack Hobbs and Donald Bradman have more Ashes runs than him.
While Smith’s performance may not be at his best, it’s important to consider the toll it takes on him. With three innings left to play, the question remains: how much does Steve have left in the tank?
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