The Ashes 2023: Steve Smith on 100th cap, batting, New York and being booed
- Published
Steve Smith will become the 15th Australian man to reach 100 Tests
When the Lord's crowd turned on Australia on Sunday, it was nothing new to Steve Smith.
"I'm used to it when I go around this country," he tells BBC Sport. "I said to the boys at one stage 'welcome to my life'."
Smith plays his 100th Test at Headingley this week, but was probably not expecting any sort of hospitality in Leeds, even before the Jonny Bairstow stumping controversy.
For obvious, sandpaper-related reasons, Smith will always be persona non grata in England.
There is, though, a parallel universe where Smith wears three lions on his chest rather than a baggy green cap on his head.
The story of an 18-year-old Smith playing club cricket for Sevenoaks Vine in 2007 is well told. Second XI appearances for Kent and Surrey could have led to a career in county cricket - and possibly playing for England - through his English mother.
"Mum has still got an English accent," says Smith. "The roots are there, but my allegiance is to Australia.
"For me it was always Australia. That was my home and where I wanted to play. Fortunately I got offered a rookie contract at New South Wales. So many of my heroes were playing there at the time, so it wasn't a difficult decision."
Three years after his stint with Sevenoaks, Smith was playing Test cricket, not as the maddening, immovable fidget batter he has become, but the latest attempt by Australia to fill the impossible hole left by Shane Warne.
Against Pakistan in 2010, Smith batted at eight and bowled 21 overs of his leg-spin, picking up three wickets. By his reckoning, he was one of the 14 spinners Australia tried between the great Warne and current number one Nathan Lyon.
"I really only bowled to be involved in the game as much as I could be," he explains. "I got lucky with the opportunity to play a few Tests.
"Batting was what I always wanted to do."
And batting is what he has done. Bat and bat and bat, over and over again, piling up mountains of runs with a method that is virtually impossible to replicate.
Even Smith cannot explain the movements Smith makes. Flamboyant ticks and leaves like a matador goading a bull. He walks across the crease and can work seemingly any delivery into the leg side, often defying geometry. Yet, with all the moving parts, Smith is a master of adopting an impenetrable position. His cover drive, back-foot punch and pull shot are the equal of anyone's.
"I look back at the footage and say 'what was I doing in that moment?" he says. "It's good I don't know what I'm doing when I'm out there. I'm just letting my natural instincts take over.
"Usually when I'm playing all those flamboyant leaves and things like that I'm usually in a pretty good place mentally."
Smith epitomises the age-old cricket truism - it's not how, but how many. His how many is more than most. There is argument to make that he is most insatiable run-getter of his era.
A career average of 59.56 is higher than anyone currently playing with a minimum of 20 Test innings. Only five players in Test history average more. His 32 tons is also more than anyone else still playing.
If there is a Big Four of Smith, Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli, Smith's average being five runs higher than the next best of that quartet, Williamson, would suggest there really only is a Big One.
He is a batting obsessive, the subject of legendary tales of marathon net sessions or shadow batting in front of the mirror in full kit.
"I love all the aspects of batting. I love practising, going in the nets and finding new ways to play," says Smith.
"When you receive new bats it's like Christmas morning every time. I've got a couple coming this week so I'm pretty excited for that."
Naturally, any evaluation of Smith's career cannot exclude his part in the 2018 sandpaper scandal which cost him the Australia captaincy and a year of his career. He is reminded every time he plays in England.
During the ban he underwent an elbow operation that made him question his future in the game. He also spent time in New York - Smith and wife Dani hold so much affection for the Big Apple they have bought a flat there.
"Hopefully it will be ready to live in by the end of the year," he explains.
"It's such a fast-paced city, there's always something going on. They don't know their cricket that well, so I can walk down the streets and be somewhat unnoticed."
If Smith had not come back to cricket, life might have revolved around playing the guitar, his successful investment in a mattress company and horse racing - he is involved in a group that has just bought a gelding called Are You Joking?
But return he did and in his first Test back produced one of the all-time great Ashes performances, not only because he made two centuries in the Ashes opener of 2019, but for the hostility he faced at Edgbaston. At one point, the atmosphere was so febrile, Dani took could not watch and took refuge in the Test Match Special commentary box.
Smith ranks that as the favourite among his 99 Tests, recently joined by the come-from-behind two-wicket win on the same ground in the first Test of this series.
He followed that up with a century in the first innings of the second Test, before Lord's lost its mind. That ton was Smith's 12th against England - only Don Bradman has more in Ashes cricket.
Smith's 3,210 runs is the fourth-most by any batter in Ashes Tests. There's a reasonable chance that Smith will end behind only The Don on that list too.
"Being spoken about in the same context as him is flattering," he says. "Ashes cricket has always been the one I try to get up for. It's the biggest challenge.
"Getting in those battles, being out there trying to be successful for the team is something I love. I've had a bit of success. Hopefully there's a little bit more to come."
Smith's Ashes career might only include three more Tests in the UK. He is 34 now and will be 38 when Australia are next due here.
"I doubt it," says Smith when asked if he will be on that tour. "Never say never, but I severely doubt it."
Boo him if you must. See him bat while you can.