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"Steve Smith is a home-track bully": de-bunking the myth

27th December, 2015
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Steven Smith continued his amazing form in India. (AFP PHOTO / GREG WOOD)
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27th December, 2015
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After Steve Smith’s failures in the third and fourth Ashes Tests, he was derided in many quarters as a “home track bully”. Yet he has a comfortably better record away from home than New Zealand’s Kane Williamson or England’s Joe Root.

Smith has been compared unfavourably with both of those batsmen by many cricket pundits and followers, with the central themes being his poor technique and supposed struggles on anything but Australian pitches.

Consider the Test records of Smith, Root and Williamson away from home:

Smith – 1840 runs at 51
Williamson – 2369 runs at 45
Root – 1042 runs at 45

During and after the Ashes, countless articles were written about Smith’s apparent weakness in difficult conditions. For the sake of balance let’s, then, explore the failures away from home of the prolific pair Williamson and Root.

Root has been exposed in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the three countries with strong pace attacks, averaging just 23 in his seven Tests in those countries.

Williamson, meanwhile, has a very poor record in the countries most difficult for a visiting Kiwi or Australian batsmen – India, South Africa and England. In those three countries, where runs are hard to come by, Williamson has floundered, averaging just 29 from 11 Tests.

Smith has been far more successful than Williamson in those difficult venues, having averaged 46 from his 17 Tests in India, South Africa and England.

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The Australian skipper has averaged 40 or more in every overseas Test environment he has played in, whereas Williamson has averaged 11 in South Africa, 31 in England and 36 in India.

Another fact: Root has scored just one century in 15 Tests away from home, compared to Smith’s five tons from 21 Tests on the road.

In this year’s Ashes, Smith made 508 runs at 56, well clear of England’s top scorer Root. Yet the savage criticism directed at Smith befitted a man who had made, say, 192 runs at 27 (Root’s return in the previous Ashes in Australia).

There can be no argument that Smith faltered when Australia needed him in the decisive third and fourth Tests of the Ashes. It shouldn’t be forgotten, though, that he also made two big first-innings hundreds for the series which drove his side to a pair of wins.

Before he’d even finished making his double ton at Lord’s we were hearing and reading opinions that it was a relatively meaningless innings because of a supposedly disgraceful flat pitch.

Yet England’s batsmen were promptly embarrassed on the same surface, reduced to 4-30 in their first innings before rolling over meekly for 103 in the second innings.

Overall, Smith would have been disappointed with his series and the fact he could not have an impact in the third and fourth Tests. It is a mark of his quality though that he still took home a huge run haul despite not being at his best.

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The excessive criticism of Smith was encapsulated in former England player Graeme Swann’s Marks out of Ten for each side following the Ashes.

Swann, remarkably, gave Smith the same score as he handed to Jos Buttler, who had an absolute nightmare series, keeping poorly and averaging 15 with the bat, which saw him dropped from the side.

Largely, it seems, because of his unusual movement across the crease, Smith attracts such irrational criticism. In the end, of course, it is not technique which matters but the runs you score – or else the textbook Shaun Marsh would have challenged Don Bradman’s Test record.

Smith has proved that, regardless of idiosyncracies in his technique, he is a versatile batsman, capable of churning out runs in a variety of different conditions.

He conquered South Africa, averaging 67 last year over three Tests against a supreme Proteas attack of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel.

Twice when the Australian batting collapsed in Asia – during the 4-0 loss in India in 2013 and the 2-0 loss in the UAE last year – he stood firm, enhancing his reputation with his nimble footwork and assured play against spin.

Yet, still, many cricket followers ridicule him as a batsman who relies on comfortable home conditions.

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To get a sense of the carping critics Smith is hounded by, read the comments section of this story on his recent announcement as the ICC Cricketer of the Year and Test Cricketer of the Year.

Those of us who have followed Smith’s career closely, rather than just making judgments based on two Ashes Tests, can only smile and shake our heads at the ignorance on display.

This is, after all, a man with a batting average of 57 and a phenomenal 13 hundreds from just 38 Tests.

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