Steve Smith was preparing for South Africa before the West Indies series had actually ended, facing up to a red ball in the Adelaide Oval nets in the hours before Australia finished off the Caribbean side with its pink cousin.
The sequence summed up Smith’s unabashed eagerness to get to grips with South Africa for the first time since the fateful 2018 series that cost him the national captaincy and a year of his playing career.
Steve Smith celebrates his double century in Perth, the fourth of his Test career.Credit:Getty Images
This is not only because of that history, but also for the fact the Proteas have restricted Smith to an average of 41.53 and just one century in nine previous Tests. The truth of 2022 is that Smith has spent most of it remodelling his game to meet this challenge.
“South Africa’s probably the one team that have bowled pretty well to me in the past, my record’s probably not quite as good against them as some of the others,” Smith said. “Some of the bowlers I’m going to come up against again that I’ve come up against previously.
“South Africa have got [Anrich] Norjte bowling 150kph, [Kagiso] Rabada 140-150 bowling slightly different, and then a left-armer in [Marco] Jansen as well, and a good spinner in [Keshav] Maharaj. So they’re a really good attack, so it’s going to be a good challenge for our batters, and hopefully we can continue the way we’ve started the summer.
“So I’m really looking forward to the series like everyone else and hopefully can get into a nice groove and contribute and score some runs.″
Since he returned home from an underwhelming tour of Pakistan, Smith has ditched the trademark shuffle across the crease he used against pace bowling from 2014 to the start of this year, instead committing to a simplified method that keeps his head still and opens up the off side far more.
In four Test matches since, albeit against Sri Lanka and West Indies, Smith has collared 406 runs at 101.50, importantly scoring at better than 60 runs per 100 balls.
“I feel in a good place,” Smith said. “I feel like I’m batting nicely, feel in good rhythm and I’m looking forward to it.
“I had a hit against the red ball this morning, preparation just changing from pink ball to the red, I was done batting in this game. So focus can now completely go to South Africa and I can’t wait.″
As for the way the series will be played, Smith stated that Australia’s disciplinary record over nearly five years since Newlands spoke more loudly than anything he could articulate.
“The cricket we’ve played over the last four and a half years we’ve played in the right way, we’ve been hard and played in the right spirit,” Smith said. “So for us nothing changes, we’re just going to continue to go about our business and hopefully play good, entertaining cricket.”
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