Former Australian team-mate Marcus North gives his verdict...
Saturday 1 August 2015 14:45, UK
Steven Smith’s remarkable run of form shows no signs of abating, with the Australia batsman racking up the runs yet again in the second Investec Ashes Test at Lord’s.
Smith smoked a career-best 215 in the first innings, followed by a quick-fire 58 in the second, as the Baggy Greens recorded a mammoth 405-run victory to square the series at 1-1.
The Sydney star has now amassed 1,391 runs across his last eight Tests, scoring six centuries in the process, with his haul at Lord’s seeing him return to the top of the world Test batting rankings.
“Bradman-esque” is a word that has been used to describe Smith during his sensational rise and the statistics suggest he does deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as “The Don”...
10 – At 26, Smith is the youngest man to score 10 Test centuries for Australia since Bradman (23 years, 114 days) and Neil Harvey (24 years, 122 days).
58.52 – Smith’s career batting average in Tests is the best of any Australian batsman to have played more than 30 innings since Bradman, who ended his career with an average of 99.94.
96.91 – Smith's batting average in the first innings of a Test match, the second-best for any batsman who has scored at least 1000 runs in the first innings. Only Bradman (113.66) averages more.
215 – Smith’s first-innings knock at Lord’s is the second highest by an Australian at the Home of Cricket, bested only by the 254 Bradman scored in 1930.
Smith’s exploits at HQ also made him the first Australian since Bradman in 1934 to score a double hundred and a fifty in the same Ashes Test, “The Don” amassing totals of 244 and 77 at The Oval.
But the in-form batsman – who has now plundered 1,170 runs in Tests against England - is refusing to get carried away.
“It’s pretty special to be talked about in the same sentence [as Bradman],” Smith told Sky Sports. “But for me it’s just about being as consistent as I can and trying to score as many runs as I can. Hopefully this patch goes on for a little while longer.”
However, are there any similarities between Smith and Bradman and how has the right-hander transformed himself into the best batsman on the planet? Over to former Australian batsman Marcus North…
“I have no doubt that he’ll become an Australian great. But I think it is unfair to compare him with anyone else. Steve Smith is Steve Smith. He is going to create his own legacy as a player.
"He has always had amazing hand-eye co-ordination, a real natural ability. He has an unorthodox style, but he also plays very straight and leaves the ball very well. He knows where his off-stump is and that has been the key to him having success at this level.
"His form has been extraordinary. I’m not surprised that he is having such success, considering how hard he has worked at his game. He has found a real method that works for him.
"I remember a couple of seasons ago playing against him in the Sheffield Shield when I was with Western Australia, and it was noticeable how much of a different player he was. He made 97 or something and just looked a class above everybody else on that field. It was noticeable that this guys was going to be a successful international cricketer.
"I expect him to have a really long career and quite possibly become one of the great Australian batsmen, along with the likes of Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke maybe. He can put himself in the same bracket as those players certainly."
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