He has made over 500 runs in the three Tests so far, but he isn’t quite invincible
Aakash Chopra04-Jan-2015Steven Smith is an ideal illustration for the belief, held by some, that technique is overrated. He isn’t your regular copybook cricketer – he moves around in the crease, picks the bat up with the bottom hand (which leads to it coming down at an angle, from around gully), hits some unorthodox cricket shots that would make a tennis player proud, and often looks quite ungainly at the crease. Initially his method was considered tailor-made for T20 and a complete misfit for the longer format. Twenty-five Tests and seven centuries later the cricket world is forced to acknowledge the importance of putting the ball in the gap over looking pretty while doing it.Smith has scored more than 500 runs in the first three Tests of the ongoing series against India, and over 1000 Test runs in 2014. While it’s quite obvious that he’s going through a purple patch, the things that he is doing right must not be underestimated. His movement towards the off stump as the bowler runs in to bowl lures the bowler into targeting the stumps. When they do that, they inevitably play into his hands. Smith’s bottom hand-dominated style of play means that he’s able to find gaps regularly, and it makes it almost impossible for the opposition to set the right field for him.I remember Smith hitting two determined fours off Mohammed Shami in Melbourne through the fine-leg region. The deliveries weren’t drifting down too much, but his bottom hand created an angle that made them go really fine. It wasn’t as if the ball rolled off the inside edge either; it came off the middle of the bat. Smith’s unique ability to create acute angles will always make it tough for bowlers. And for someone who dominates with the bottom hand Smith has driven fast bowlers through the cover region quite often in this series.It is a delight to watch him bat against spin – in a manner that comes straight from the Australian book of playing spin. During a recent conversation Matthew Hayden told me that young Australian cricketers are taught to use their feet when the ball is in the air, for the effort should always be to meet the ball on the full. Smith puts on the dancing shoes the moment the ball is floated up, and like most modern batsmen, he isn’t shy of taking the aerial route.On a wearing pitch in Adelaide he happily used his feet against Karn Sharma, and at times managed to hit against the spin through the on side. He hit cover drives along the ground, displaying good transference of weight. Against R Ashwin in Brisbane and Melbourne, he went down the ground and never looked in any discomfort doing so. Perhaps the Indians can take a leaf out of his book when it comes to playing spin.While Smith has obviously been brilliant in the series, it’s worth asking whether the Indian bowlers, especially the quick ones, did enough to exploit his vulnerabilities. English bowlers found a chink in his armour in England, bowling in the corridor outside off stump. Well, most batsmen find themselves in trouble if bowlers are persistent with that line, but some are troubled a little more than others. Given how much he moves about in the crease before the ball is bowled, it’s obvious Smith will be susceptible to being caught behind. Your knowledge of where your off stump is relies on the position of your head in the batting stance, and if you’re moving too much it’s almost impossible to know where you will finish each time. Ergo, you will not leave too many balls alone, and in the process you might nick a few.In addition to that line, the length must always draw the batsman forward. Smith has scored equally prolifically against pace off front foot and back, which reflects the lengths India have bowled to him. Someone like M Vijay, India’s second-highest run scorer in this series, has scored about 90% of his runs against pace off the front foot, which means the Australians have bowled a lot fuller – unlike the Indian bowlers.
Smith v paceRunsBalls% of runs% of ballsWktsSRFront foot20333256.264.8061.14Back foot15818043.835.2487.78When it comes to line, the corridor outside off to Smith must move a few inches to the off, for he gets too close to balls in the line of the fourth or fifth stump. Smith has left only 10% of the balls bowled in the corridor, as opposed to Vijay, who has left alone 27%. It might have been worth the Indians’ while to try bowling a few inches wider to him with a packed off-side field. That’s the strategy the South Africans employ when someone is set and dominating play. There aren’t too many batsmen who are equipped to drag the ball to the relatively vacant on-side field from there. Also, if you can’t get the batsman out, you might as well stop the runs flowing.
BatsmanBalls in the channel% of overall balls faced% left aloneSteven Smith15730.710.20Murali Vijay19633.927On our show Game Plan here on ESPNcricinfo, I asked Ajit Agarkar about how difficult it is to bowl to someone who moves a lot and what the strategy should be. Ajit was of the opinion that while it’s tough to plan for such unorthodox batsmen, it’s prudent to go back to your bowling basics. Instead of trying something fancy it’s better to stick to the line and length you would stick to in the normal course.At the moment, it’s quite obvious that Smith’s unorthodox style of play has foxed the Indians.
