Steve Smith has been upfront and personal in leading the baggy greens to a stunning three-Test success to regain the Ashes.
Not only has he won two of the three man of the match awards, and clearly tops the run-getters, but two captaincy decisions against the odds proved he was right, and the pundits wrong.
The first was deciding against making England follow on in the second Test at Adelaide, and being a party to Australia folding for 138.
That left England 354 to win to square the series, but the skipper rallied his bowling troops to win by 120.
But he did admit to having to taking a sleeping pill to see him through to winning the Test, and a 2-0 lead.
And the second captaincy coup was played out at the WACA.
Having built up a 146-run lead over England’s 403 after three days, and knowing torrential rain was forecast for late on day four that could impact on the final day, Smith stuck to his belief Australia should bat on.
A seemingly more positive decision would have been to declare with the 146-run lead, and let the faster more dangerous Australian quicks cut loose on a track that was wearing with large cracks surfacing.
(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
But Smith batted on to declare at 9-662, a lead of 259.
The torrential rain did come, and there were many anxious moments on the final day that play mightn’t start, but Smith manipulated his attack superbly that saw the Australians home by an innings and 41.
Is there any performance bar that Steve Smith can’t reach?
His Test career average is now 62.32, second only to The Don, and he’s by far the top-scorer in this series:
Steve Smith – 426 runs at 142.00
Dawid Malan – 302 at 50.33.
Jonny Bairstow – 241 at 40.16.
And Shaun Marsh – 224 at 74.00.
Malan and Bairstow have both batted six times, while Smith and Marsh have only batted four times each, with one not out.
There have been 70 Ashes series in history with yesterday’s success at the WACA taking the Australians to 33 series wins, England 32, with five drawn.
Next cab off the rank will be the confident and hungry Australians securing a five-Test whitewash, only achieved three times by Australians in 1920-21, 2006-07, and 2013-14.
England has never had a 5-0 result, but they did have 5-1 in a rare six Test series in 1978-79.
England’s best series winning streak is eight from 1882 to 1890, matched by the Australians from 1990 to 2003.
Smith’s mountainous run-getting has him on the front page among the 52 most prolific Ashes scorers of all time.
(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
And he started as a leg-spinning hopeful batting nine, or eight, seven years ago.
The transformation has been nothing short of spectacular, and showing no signs of slowing down.
The top 12 are:
Sir Donald Bradman – 5028 runs at 89.78, with 19 centuries, 12 half-centuries, and six ducks.
Sir Jack Hobbs – 3636 at 54.26 with 12- 15 – 3.
Allan Border – 3222 at 55.55 – 7 – 19 – 3.
Steve Waugh – 3173 at 58.75 – 10 – 14 – 6.
David Gower – 3037 at 46.01 – 9 – 11 – 2.
Walter Hammond – 2852 at 51.85 – 9 – 7 – 2.
Bert Sutcliffe – 2741 at 66.85 – 8 – 16 – 1.
Clem Hill – 2660 at 35.46 – 4 – 16 – 8.
John Edrich – 2644 at 48.96 – 7 – 13 – 0.
Geoff Boycott – 2579 at 46.05 – 6 – 12 – 2.
Mark Taylor – 2496 at 42.30 – 6 – 15 – 2.
And Ricky Ponting – 2476 at 44.21 – 8 – 9 – 2.
Smith is currently on 1765 at 51.91 with 7–4–1, and by the end of the SCG Test has other legends well within his reach.
Denis Compton’s 1842 at 42.83.
Mike Atherton – 1900 at 29.68.
Doug Walters – 1911 at 35.38.
Stan McCabe – 1931 at 48.27.
And Ian Chappell’s 1986 at 40.53.
With at least another four Ashes series awaiting the current world number one Test batsman, it’s reasonable to assume he’ll among the all-time leaders before he hides his bat in the cupboard.
And that will bear testimony to his greatness.
While a premature retirement isn’t the solution, he or England want, he may be forced into it if he can’t maintain a long run of matches.
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