Former Australian cricketer Mike Hussey has praised Steve Smith for his turn around in form this summer after his player of the series-worthy performance in Sri Lanka.
Smith stepped up as captain against Sri Lanka, and was pivotal in guiding Australia to a comprehensive 2-0 win over the hosts in Galle.
Across the two matches, Smith made two centuries finishing with 272 runs and an average of 136. He brought up his 10,000th test run in the first test, making him the four Australian to do so.
Prior to the Sri Lanka series, Smith also rebounded from a poor start against India, to score two centuries in the backend of Australia’s successful Border Gavaskar campaign.
Speaking to SportFM, Hussey believed the back end of this summer reminded everyone of Smith’s class.
“I know there was a lot of talk at the early parts of the Australian summer that Steve Smith’s gone,“ he said.
“I didn’t think he was out of form. He just was finding different ways to get out. He showed that the back end of the Indian series as well, got a couple of hundreds there.
“You get him into those spin conditions and it’s just like his backyard. He loves playing in those sort of conditions. He plays the spin so well, he reads the conditions so well.
“He just doesn’t want to be anywhere else in the world except out in the middle. There’s the old saying that form is temporary and class is permanent and he showed his class again.”
Australian Captain Pat Cummins ruled himself out of the Sri Lanka tests due to a clash with the birth of his second child, leaving Smith to stand up in his absence.
Smith led an inexperienced side, boasting two debutants and three players with less than five Test matches under their belt, to victory in Sri Lanka for the first time since 2011.
Interestingly, Smith averages more runs as captain (69.98) than when he isn’t (50.67), despite playing less innings as captain. Hussey believes his seniority in the side could have given him a boost in performance.
“Taking over the captaincy as well as a stand in for Pat Cummins, sometimes that gives you a bit of a lift as well, a little bit of extra motivation to get out there and play well,” he said.
“I thought it was actually going to be a challenging series for the Australians because with some inexperienced players in spinning conditions.
“It can be really challenging when you haven’t been in those conditions much.
“I thought it’s going to have to be the senior players that score a lot of the runs for Australia to do well and of course, it was Khawaja and Smith, the two mainstays in scoring a lot of runs and helping Australia win a great series.”
With talks of Smith’s playing future in the Baggy Green staring to swirl, he is currently among the best visiting batsmen to have played in the sub-continent.
Smith now holds the record for the most Test centuries in the sub-continent for an Australian batter, with seven hundreds made across his career.
He also holds the record for the Australian with the most test runs in Asia, making 1994 runs and passing Ricky Ponting’s record of 1889 runs.
Hussey says his form in the spin-heavy sub-continent links back to his upbringing at the SCG – another pitch that favours spin.
“He’s just probably one of our greatest players full stop, whether it’s against spin bowling or in any conditions, really,” he said.
“I haven’t looked at his record in spinning conditions or games where it’s turned a lot, but I guess being brought up at the SCG in the old days, it certainly spun a lot. He would have would have had a lot of opportunity to learn his craft there.
“He just seems to really thrive in the spinning conditions. He just knows where he’s going to score his runs.
“It’s so different than playing in Australia and I think some players find it challenging just to realise that you’re going to have to score your runs in different areas.”
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