Aussie greats laud Smith's most significant century

As Steve Smith prepares for the Headingley hostilities that await in his 100th Test match appearance starting Thursday, he can take solace in knowing the occasion would be potentially more daunting if he was reaching that milestone on home turf.

That's according to a couple of the 14 other Australia men to have reached triple figures in Tests played, and thereby gained membership of an exclusive cohort of less than 80 cricketers across almost 150 years to claim such longevity.

Mark Taylor and Ricky Ponting – like Smith, both former captains of Australia – carry very clear recollections of their respective 100th Tests that are not directly related to on-field performance.

Ponting remembers being more nervous ahead of his milestone match, against South Africa in Sydney (then his home town) in 2006, than at any previous stage of his international career including his maiden Test against Sri Lanka in 1995.

Image Id: BBC0F0A127F349EBA7E94EDC62897D33 Image Caption: Ricky Ponting prior to his 100th Test in 2006 // Getty

He says that anxiety level stemmed from having a large party of family, friends and sponsors for whom he had organised several corporate boxes at the SCG to be part of the occasion, thereby heightening the expectation he placed on himself to perform.

"We fielded first and I dropped an absolute sitter at second slip off McGrath - AB de Villiers in about the third over," Ponting told cricket.com.au.

"It was such a regulation one catch and I put it down, and I remember thinking to myself 'what are you doing, why are you so nervous - just let it go, it's just another game, go and play'.

"I was probably lucky that we did field that day, then I had a chance to get it under my belt and get into the game.

"I could go away and think about batting after that.

"So for Steve to have it here (in England), there might be a lot less distractions than having a Sydney Test for his hundredth.

"He'd have a lot more going on if he was at home."

After his early blemish, Ponting scored 120 and 143 not out to lead Australia to an eight-wicket win and remains the only player to post a century in each innings of their hundredth Test.

The first person to notch a ton in their 100th appearance was also the first person to complete 100 Test matches – England stalwart Colin Cowdrey, who also set the bar for performances in a jubilee matches by scoring 104 in the first innings of the 1968 Ashes encounter at Old Trafford.

But Ponting's experience provided a marked contrast to Taylor who, in the opening Test of the 1997-98 Ashes series, became the fifth Australia men's player to reach 100 Tests, and the second behind Allan Border a decade earlier to mark the occasion with a duck.

But while that second innings dismissal and the frustrating draw caused by a torrential Brisbane day-five downpour that curtailed the Test with Australia just four wickets from victory, it was events that followed which stick most clearly in Taylor's mind.

"After the game, I was a bit frustrated at not being able to get the result, and Tony Greig was doing the man-of-the-match presentations just outside the changerooms at the Gabba where he would talk to both the captains," Taylor told cricket.com.au.

"As I was doing the presser with Greigy and he was asking me questions, I got a tap on the shoulder halfway through the interview.

"I couldn't believe it, so I shrugged it off but whoever it was came back and tapped me again halfway through the next question from Greigy, and I swung around to find it was (Channel Nine personality) Mike Munro who at that stage was hosting 'This is Your Life'.

"So he surprised me during the press conference, and we pretty much headed straight off after that to film 'This is Your Life', which ended up being a cracking night."

Image Id: 51B7D8BEDE134C0FB2749AE941472CFE Image Caption: Mark Taylor congratulated ahead of his 100th Test match // Getty

Smith's celebration looms as decidedly lower key, although the 34-year-old has conceded he may allow himself an additional block of dairy-milk chocolate – the treat he normally indulges in after scoring a Test century – to mark another three-figure feat.

His deeper ambition is that – rather than simply celebrate an individual achievement, as momentous as it is – his post-match party will centre on another Test victory which would clinch an Australia Ashes series win in the UK for the first time since 2001.

"It is something that has been on my bucket list, to win an Ashes series in England," Smith said.

"What a way to top it off, if I could do it in my 100th game. It would be special for sure.

Despite the presence of his wife Dani, and his parents (Peter and Gillian) at Headingley this week, the greatest potential source of outside disturbance for Smith will be the habitually raucous fans at Headingley who are expected to step up the barracking launched at Lord's last Sunday.

It's unlikely to faze Australia's most productive contemporary batter who has dealt with hostile crowds for five years and is renowned for immersing himself in a 'batting bubble' that allows him to think of little else beyond an ongoing match.

That capacity to block out external noise also enables Smith to shrug off the cat calls that have followed him since Cape Town 2018, and ignore criticisms by pointing out the squawking – including last Sunday's ugly ruckus at Lord's – genuinely doesn't perturb him.

"Everyone is entitled to their opinion," Smith said on the eve of his 100th Test, which would have come at Brisbane last Australia summer but for the suspension he served after Cape Town.

"I know the person I am, I know how I want to go about things.

"I am out here playing my game and for my country. I am comfortable in my own skin."

Where he's not comfortable is watching Test matches from close quarters, as was the case on his previous Ashes visit to Leeds four years ago.

Having dominated England's bowlers in the first Test and a half of that series before being felled by a Jofra Archer bouncer, Smith was ruled out of the third match at Headingley due to concussion and looked on in increasing agitation as now-skipper Ben Stokes carried England to an extraordinary win.

Image Id: D7D13F0BCBFA4F40B64F3A40A8084141 Image Caption: Steve Smith informed by coach Justin Langer he would sit out the 2019 Ashes Test at Headingley // Getty

"Yeah, I didn't enjoy that at all," he recalled.

"Just sitting and watching the Ben Stokes show, that almost occurred again (at Lord's last Sunday).

"But to be able to walk out at Headingley, it will be a great moment for me to tick off 100 games.

"Not too many people have done that in the Australian set up."

While Australia's 'hundred club' will remain exclusive with just 15 members come Thursday, Smith can also lay claim to being part of an even more select cohort as one of just three batters in the game's history to have played 50 or more Tests and averaged at least 59.

The others are Australia's indomitable Don Bradman (99.94 from 80 innings) and England's Herbert Sutcliffe (60.73 from 84), although their combined total of times at bat is less than Smith's current 175 and neither of those former greats played any Test cricket on the subcontinent.

And in the eyes of his fellow centurions, it's that sustained output against all comers, in wildly varying conditions and in an era where technology allows opponents to track and target the smallest chinks in a rival's technique that stands as Smith's most profound achievement.

"The great players are the ones that can stretch out a level of very high performance over a long period of time," Ponting said.

"That's why I never make too much about guys who burst on the scene and average 50 after ten Tests and are talked about as being great – that's not what greatness is to me.

"Steve Smith is a great player.

"And I don't think any opposition team in the last six or seven years has come any closer to working out a way to bowl to him.

"There's the leg slip sort of strategy England are working on now, but there's never been any real set plan as to how they're going to get him out.

"What he's worked out for himself is a technique and a game that's going to stand up against any form of attack, and then worked his own strengths and weaknesses into it.

"He said the other day he wouldn't teach anyone to bat like him, he'd tell everyone to be the best version of themselves and do what they can do.

"That's what he's done, he's worked out a method that he knows is going to work for him, he's stuck to it, and he's been bloody productive."

Taylor, who played through the era of rival batters considered the modern-day greats, has no hesitation in ranking Smith alongside the very best he's seen.

Of Smith's current contemporaries, the next-best Test performers over a prolonged period are New Zealand's Kane Williamson (average 54.89 after 94 Tests), England's Joe Root (50.43 from 132) and India's Virat Kohli (48.72 from 109).

But Taylor believes Smith deserves to sit among an even more select group who are regarded as the batting benchmarks of the past five decades.

"He's in an echelon with the absolute greats of the game," Taylor said.

"I'll let other people rate players from yesteryear, but to me he's Viv Richards, he's Sachin Tendulkar, he's Brian Lara … and Virat Kohli, at his very best, I think is in that lot.

"For Smithy to average 60, he's got that unique style that he has honed and I'm not sure other people could replicate it.

"He picks up the length of the ball quicker than I think any player in the game, and that's what allows him to play like he does because someone who doesn't pick up the length that quickly would be lbw a lot more, and would miss more balls whereas he's good enough to hit them.

"You look at the amount of different tactics teams have used against him – there's leg-side theory, bowling straight, bowling wide of off-stump, trying to dry him up.

"They've tried everything, and yet he still averages 60.

"And to do it over 100 Tests, that's just amazing."

2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK

First Test: Australia won by two wickets

Second Test: Wednesday June 28-Sunday July 2, Lord’s

Third Test: Thursday July 6-Monday July 10, Headingley

Fourth Test: Wednesday July 19-Sunday July 23, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood