'Drained' by 100th Test, Smith back at happy hunting grounds

Steve Smith admits the emotions of playing his 100th Test left him "mentally drained", but England’s eagerness to keep him quiet for the concluding matches of the Ashes will be threatened by the star Australian’s return to his two best Test batting venues abroad. 

Before arriving back in Manchester where his 211 set up Australia's urn-retaining win four years ago, Smith took in last week’s Wimbledon tennis quarter-final involving eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz as part of a London getaway he hopes will leave him refreshed for the climax of an intense tour.

"Honestly I needed a break," the 33-year-old told the Unplayable Podcast after returns of 22 and 2 in a defeat at Headingley that broke his side's three-game winning streak in the UK.

Smith is a master of tuning out distractions and getting into his famed 'bubble' while batting, with centuries in the World Test Championship final against India and then again in the second Test against England highlighting that those powers of concentration remain intact.

Yet the right-hander admitted the occasion of reaching a century of Tests in Leeds, combined with the short three-day break after the Lord's Test, got the better of him.

An uncharacteristic dismissal to Moeen Ali in Australia's second innings was the result, seeing him dismissed for single-figures for just the second time in his last 16 Test innings in England.

"It was quite a draining week mentally with emotions flying around at what I'd achieved," said Smith. "I usually don't like to think about that kind of thing, but it was quite a big milestone individually.

"I was just quite mentally drained from (the short break between Tests) to begin with. I certainly didn't feel as switched on as I would have liked out in the middle.

"It's been good to refresh and I feel a lot more focused mentally this week. Outside of that, it was just a weird week, I'm not really sure why."

Image Id: 8E77FF1E02394DD488366E8AF2DDCAFC Image Caption: Smith chats with Marnus Labuschagne and Andy Flower in the Manchester nets // Getty

Smith has good reason to believe he will be able to turn things around.

His returns of 211 and 82 at Old Trafford in 2019 in his comeback from concussion marked his highest overall runs tally ever in a Test, lifting his batting average at the venue to 100.25 having also had success there in 2013 (scoring 89 and 19) on his first Ashes tour.

At The Oval too, where Australia face a second potential 'grand final' Test in the space of two months if England win in Manchester, Smith has strong form; his 121 against India last month was his third ton there and brought his venue average up to 91.

That makes the two grounds at opposite ends of the country statistically Smith's two best Test batting venues overseas (among grounds he has played at least twice at) and behind only Perth Stadium (where he averages 139.50) overall.

Stung by his success in 2019, England have come at Smith with left-field tactics in this series.

Dual leg-slips have been favoured by captain Ben Stokes, especially when Stuart Broad or Ollie Robinson has been bowling at him early in his innings, while they have also tested him out with short-ball ploys.

The hosts may argue it has worked, dismissing him for 34 or fewer in five of his six innings when they only managed to do that once in seven innings in 2019.

"I was pretty sure that they would come up with some different stuff," said Smith, whose 110 at Lord’s marked his 32nd century in the format.

"I feel like I've got through some pretty tough periods; Lord’s when the lights were on, and had an impact in that game. Didn't have as much impact in the first and third games as I'd like.

"But we've played four Test matches here, I've got two hundreds in four games, which is probably better than my record overall, in terms of hundreds scored and games played.

"A couple more games to go and two places that I really enjoy batting.

"Hopefully I can have an impact in the last two."

2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK

First Test: Australia won by two wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 43 runs

Third Test: England won by three wickets

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), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood