Ask any Aussie player and they will have a story, or ten, of how Steve Smith loves practicing for his batting in the nets. It’s Christmas, yeah, but Smith has to bat. It’s 2 am. Does not matter, throw him his bat. It’s raining outside. Bummer! But not for Steve Smith, he will practice in the hotel hallways if he must.
Everyone loves a good success story. Seeing people start from nothing and go on to achieve everything gives a sense of second-hand fulfillment. But the path to success is not always straight and uncrooked. Ask Smith, who has seen it all—the zeniths and the nadirs—but lately, more nadirs than anything. With each match, his lean patch stretched more and more. What do you do when faced with challenges so exasperatingly basic yet persistently clingy? When you know the right answer to your problems but do not know how to say it out aloud?
Like Smith, you desperately try to wriggle it out of you. You shift batting positions in hopes of churning the runs once again. You keep trying to reach the ceiling you once set yourself. And when nothing seems to be working. You confront the theory that you are past your zenith. The golden days have ended for you. But, as someone like Smith, you are adamant it’s not true. How could it be true about you? Not when you have so much left to prove.
There is something about Smith; he tends to annoyingly remain stuck to what he is passionate about, which is both admirable and frustrating. There is a reason why his teammates believe Steve Smith’s idea of a bad day is one where he can’t gear up to bat, either in the nets or on the ground.
Lesser players would have succumbed to the slump that stretched for more than a year and brought with it plenty of doubters. As much as it sounds cliche, Smith thrives of proving them wrong.
Before the Border-Gavaksar Trophy, he had gone over 20 innings without a Test hundred, his last century dating back to June of last year. His run drought stretched long enough to create doubts he would get a ton scripted in his centuries column this year. It took him 24 innings, but much to his glee, he managed to notch up two back-to-back centuries in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. This means he will not turn the calendar on the note his year had been in for the larger part. There will be comfort for him in the knowledge that the New Year will not begin with demons of the past dragging him back.
Australia’s stuff-for-dreams victory at the MCG is quite literally the talk of the town right now. And rightly so. Matches like that are the reason why Test cricket still thrives despite its younger counterparts trying to vie for the limelight. But amidst all the buzz surrounding the victory, there is something that seems to have slipped under the radar: Steve Smith has found what he lost. The man has scored two Test tons in as many games, and yet there is barely anyone talking about that.
But that’s when you know Smith is back to his trademark best; when brilliance becomes a routine. Steve notched up a ton? Yawn. Tell us something new.
