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Steve Smith is a great batsman. He could be one of Australia’s all time legends. His mental fortitude is obviously amazing. But as a captain, he’s third rate.
First of all, he’s weak. Smith allowed himself to be sent home during the middle of a one day international series in Sri Lanka. He wanted to stay, he was overruled and went along with it.
Instead of refusing and/or threatening to resign, he allowed his balls to be publicly cut off by Rod Marsh and Darren Lehmann. The great captains – Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor, Ian Chappell, Richie Benaud, Don Bradman – wouldn’t have stood for it, even at a young age. Smith did. He showed everyone who is boss of the Australian cricket team, and it wasn’t him.
He had a chance to change things when Marsh resigned after five Test defeats in a row – he could and should have insisted he be a selector in Marsh’s place. But he didn’t and isn’t. Lehmann still is though. Smith lets himself be in a situation where the coach – a position that didn’t even exist in Australian Test cricket until the 1980s – is a selector and he is not. The coach has the power to sack Smith… not vice versa.
Smith is tactically poor with bowlers. If he can’t get wickets from Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood he seems to run out of ideas. Even when he had the option of Mitchell Marsh as a fifth bowler he never seemed that interested in using him. For whatever reason, he struggles to use himself as a change bowler. He’s reluctant to use Dave Warner.
He seems to hate spinners – publicly blaming them for the loss in Sri Lanka, handling Nathan Lyon badly, insisting on Matthew Wade over Peter Nevill as keeper despite the former’s inferior glove work (which hurts spinners more than anyone). Batsmen who can bowl spin normally make good captains of spinners (Michael Clarke, Ian Chappell). Not Smith.
He lacks aggression and doesn’t seem to be on top of things. He let India get away with a draw at the MCG two summers ago. He panicked during the recent Pakistan run chase at the Gabba. In the same game, umpires allowed an extra eight overs of bowling because they thought it’s what Smith wanted when it wasn’t. In the last Test against South Africa, he was completely – and very obviously – gobsmacked by Faf du Plessis’ surprise declaration.
What Smith does have – in spades – is an ability to lead by the front with the bat. He is, I repeat, an amazing batsman. He seems to be a better man-manager of his team than Michael Clarke, who needed a strong deputy. But he doesn’t offer much else. It’s like Alan Border is back captaining the side.
We all know Border is a giant of the game, who helped lead us back from the mid 80s nadir etc etc but that doesn’t change the fact that for his first few years in charge he was a poor captain and he never became a great one. He became an okay one, especially once he had some match-winning bowlers, but he was never able to defeat the Windies or beat India or Pakistan at home. It took Mark Taylor to lift Australia to the next level.
Border had the traumas of the South African Rebel tours and the Kim Hughes saga as an excuse. Smith has his youth, an unusually immature side (no wise old heads like Brad Haddin or Ricky Ponting in there), and a power-hungry coach who seems to think he’s Alex Ferguson.
Maybe Smith will get better. Maybe it will help having Wade by his side. The maturation of Usman Khawaja has got to be useful. And let’s not forget Graeme Smith’s first few years were rocky.
I hope he’ll get better. Because I do like Smith. And with his youth, brilliant batting form and lack of alternatives, it looks as though we’re stuck with him for a long, long time.
I still wish we had a better alternative as captain, though.
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