Ashes 2017/18: Steven Smith - Sophisticated simplicity

Yet another Test Match. Yet another century for Steven Smith. Yet another day of relentless frustration for the bowlers. Yet another day where the record books tumbled. It has become a far too familiar script now.

When you see Steven Smith's technique and his stats, you won't quite believe that the stats belong to the same player that is batting out there. Smith is the quintessential example of a successful batsman with an unorthodox technique.

For a top order batsman, he moves a lot in his crease. He pats his left pad first followed by his right pad and then he tickles his gloves once and adjusts his helmet before taking his significantly narrow stance. Then comes the extravagant back and across trigger movement that converts the corridor of uncertainty to a scoring opportunity.

Substance over style

Any professional cricket coach would have made an effort to tinker his technique at a very early age. Except one guy - Trent Woodhill, who was Smith's coach during his junior cricketing days firmly believed that over coaching has been a primary reason for the failure of a lot of promising but unorthodox batsmen in Australia.

Woodhill saw substance over style. Of course, Smith's strong hand-eye coordination compensates all the movements in the crease. But the amount of hard work that he puts in to perfect the art of scoring runs is unquestionable.

Let's not forget the fact that we are talking about a cricketer who got into the scene as a leg break bowler. He was tipped to become the next Shane Warne of Australia after finishing as the highest wicket taker of 2008 KFC Big Bash and the second highest wicket taker of 2010 World T20.

But Smith, the batsman, shot into prominence only after the 2011 World Cup. After being in and out of the team for a few years, he concentrated solely on his batting which fetched him fruitful rewards. Comparisons with Warne talks ceased.

Now all that people speak about is the fact Smith has the second highest batting average (among all batsmen with at least 20 innings) in Test history. He is second only to Sir Donald Bradman. From being a leg-spinner to the number one batsman in the world, his transformation has been admirable.

Overseas performances have been set as benchmark to judge the caliber of a cricketer. Being an Australian, the first weakness that people look for is his ability to play the turning ball. Smith has been magnificent on those fronts as well. His overseas records and his numbers in Asia speak for themselves. In fact, he plays spin better than most Asian batsmen. The way he scoots down the pitch to smother the spin is not exactly out of the coaching manual but it is very effective.

At the moment, it looks impossible to get him out. Different teams have tried different things against him. Bowling wide outside off stump with a 7-2 offside field or bowling at his body with three close in fielders in the leg side or trying to bounce him out or even trying to get under his skin with a bit of a banter. However, nothing has worked out yet.

A 'brain-fade' is what bowlers are hoping for in every single innings and it is simply not happening for them unfortunately. Someone once said, "If batting is coding, then Steven Smith is a hacker of it". Right now, Smith's batting is belittling the law of averages in cricket.