3 takeaways from Australia’s whitewash of New Zealand

Finally, a weakness in Smith

Neil Wagner caused problems for Steve Smith through short-pitch bowling

Lastly, this series also witnessed a very rare phenomenon – Steve Smith failing to get a hundred. In fact, the Australian batsman went the entire home season of Test cricket without getting a century in the longest format of the game.

But what was much more important was the manner in which he got out in the first two Tests. Neil Wagner, attacked Smith with a barrage of short deliveries from around the stump aimed at his body and head. The field was also set for this kind of attack with a man at backward point and short fine-leg.

In four out of four innings of the first two Tests, Smith was dismissed to the same bowler – Wagner – trying to pull the ball. To be fair, on some of those occasions, he was attempting to increase the scoring rate and had to sacrifice his wicket.

But it was clear that this line of attack was bothering Smith and he wasn’t sure what to do with it. The prolific batsman had to decide between attacking balls on this line and just letting them go. On more than one occasion, when he tried to play the pull shot, he ended up losing his wicket.

Considering the success that Wagner had with this kind of bowling against Smith, it is certain that other teams would also try and emulate this plan. How Smith counters it would be very interesting to watch.