Adding strength to intelligence: how Smith has leveled up

It was a shot that even had Ravindra Jadeja doing a double take. As if he wanted to make sure the hitter was the same Steve Smith he’d been bowling with for almost a decade. As common as the slog sweep has become in cricket today, the left arm Indian spinner had not often seen the Australian hitting master kneel and slam him into the spin over the deep half-wicket boundary. That simply wasn’t part of Smith’s repertoire or it certainly wasn’t his go-to offense, even when it was necessary to accelerate.

While Smith has repeatedly spoken about “finding his hands” over the past 10 days, he has also been on the quest to find his feet in the shorter formats since he returned from a year-long suspension for the 2019 World Cup. It’s not that the once Aussie captain didn’t have a good cricket record of over 50 or that he was in desperate need to increase his hitting arsenal against the white ball. But Smith had given us insight into his constant growth mindset before the Ashes series began last year, on how he wanted to “be better tomorrow, better last, and better last.”

Since returning to the net after a long period without hitting a bat during the peak period of the pandemic, he has made the decision to work on his game of hitting limits. Smith spent most of his time before touring England earlier this year doing exactly that. It involved constantly asking Nathan Lyon about the exact position of his virtual deep midfield and then trying to clear the fielder. And also moving into his crease to attempt ramp shots against Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.

Smith did not have the best of the T20I series in England, but he showed on a couple of occasions that he was now ready to start his innings more aggressively. There was a six over the straight field at Adil Rashid’s bowling alley in Game 1 and a spinning hook shot for six Sam Curran. But then came the injury that ruled him out of the ODI and that was it.

Smith started the IPL with that confidence and would have felt he had achieved his goal when he promoted himself to start for the Rajasthan Royals and broke 69 of 47 balls with 4 sixes. However, he was soon back in the middle order and not always got going. There were times when he seemed too eager to hit the gas, especially in that lanky duel against Pat Cummins. Other times it seemed like he was pushing himself too hard to find those hands.

It wasn’t easy for Smith to get back on track as the IPL Australians trained during their quarantine period in Sydney. The slightly slow, top-to-bottom pitches on the nets weren’t suitable for the update he was looking to install on his one-day hitting. Then came his now famous statement about having found his control, just three days before the opening of ODI against India on Friday. And he has shown exactly what he meant by two sparkling centuries, both hit in 62 balls, against a beleaguered Indian attack.

Steve Smith could always manipulate the field. It has been one of his greatest strengths as one of the best hitters of his generation. He could do it at will. But what he has shown over the past two nights at SCG is his ability to hit the field now, seemingly at will.

“I haven’t been feeling quite right for a while and maybe it’s T20 cricket, trying to be a little more powerful and probably not playing to my strengths as much as I would like. So, I’ve gone back to my normal grip and found it. It might sound like a lot of fun, but the other day it just clicked into place and I was able to drive the ball where I wanted to, I was able to hit the middle of the left side and it wasn’t cutting the ball as much as I was in the IPL for a while. ” on Friday.

Twice he made a drive to the left in the middle of the game on Sunday (November 29) to get going. However, it was Jadeja’s hard work that really showed how he has improved himself again, how he has created a new team for himself with bat in hand.

Smith had started cautiously in the first game before a lbw decision was overturned. He never looked back. Using it almost as a new lease on life, it has produced two of the most memorable ODI centuries this country has ever witnessed. His shot at the ball after the pardon, where he jumped up to Jadeja and hit him long, just clearing the fielder, was another sign of his new intention in white ball cricket.

Smith’s entries on Sunday were laced with the usual attributes of his genius, the three limits on a Jasprit Bumrah the center of attention of his class. The second and third in particular, where he first cut through the narrow gap between the goalie and a short, thin third man with a touch before moving inside the line and scoring one past the outstretched left hand of the thin-leg short fielder. . . Only a few balls later came another six from Yuzvendra Chahal as he jumped up and launched the leg spinner over the straight boundary towards the viewing screen. Then he capped his century with a downward ramp shot like Rohan Kanhai in colorful clothing.

You could also see how much fun Smith was having, simply by the range of his animated hand movements in relation to his personal conversations about where he felt the ball should have gone after he had played a certain shot and where it finally did.

Whether Smith keeps his hands for now, his never-ending quest to improve is another indicator of the incredible mind he possesses to hit. You just have to see how hard he has gone to add power play to his hitting without having to stray too far from his natural abilities. And you just know that Jadeja won’t be the only bowler to take a double take the next time they face Smith and his hands at cue ball cricket.