ANALYSIS
Follow UsIt was a telling little moment. For the second time in two innings, Mark Wood had managed to get the better of Steve Smith, this time by getting the batter to glove one to the keeper. But it was what unfolded after the dismissal that was revealing.
No disbelief. No annoyance. No hanging around. As soon as he gloved it, Smith walked as fast as he could back to the dressing room. He did not even wait for the decision of the umpire, who in fact had not ruled him out. Emptily and inexpressively, Smith exited the ground swiftly and climbed up the stairs to join the rest of his teammates.
For once, perhaps for the first time ever, Smith looked completely defeated, almost accepting his and Australia’s fate.
It was a very unusual and borderline heart-rending sight, but it’s been that kind of an Ashes for the great man.
Following his dismissal today, his average for the series has fallen to 31.00, which is the fourth-lowest among all top seven batters in this series that have played at least five innings.
The ton at Lord’s, which was proclaimed to be his ‘return to form’ after a twin-failure at Edgbaston, remains his only 50+ score in the series. And four Tests on, that very ton at the Home of Cricket has proven to be an anomaly rather than the norm.
As someone that takes a lot of pride in his batting and as someone that — every single time — feels responsible for winning matches for his side, there is little doubt that these string of failures will be eating up Smith.
Considering Australia won the first Test at Edgbaston, Smith probably would not have felt too bad about the 22-run aggregate he dished out in Birmingham but you can bet the house that he’s being consumed by guilt right now, in the aftermath of his showings in the third and fourth Tests.
For on four separate occasions now he’s had the opportunity to make a serious difference, and somehow, he’s gone and blown every single one of those chances.
In those four, you reckon that it will be the second innings at Headingley and the first innings here at Old Trafford that he’ll be losing sleep over.
When Smith walked out to bat in the second innings in Leeds, Australia were effectively 94/2 with the sun belting down. There was little to nothing happening on the surface, the conditions were the best they had been all match and England were operating Moeen Ali from one end. That was great news for Smith, who prior to that innings was averaging 114.3 against Moeen in Tests.
Inexplicably, much to everyone’s shock, Smith uppishly flicked one off Moeen straight into the hands of Ben Duckett at mid-wicket, gifting England his wicket, in turn giving the Three Lions a massive opening.
Australia eventually were able to set a target of only 250 — which England just about chased down — and Smith, all things considered, was partly responsible for the result.
At least at Headingley, he never got in at all, but here at Old Trafford in the first innings, he started off like a dream, looked set for a huge score but then, out of nowhere, missed a straight one from Wood.
Getting out on 41 in England is in itself a sin, but the bigger picture made the dismissal worse. Australia were coasting at 120/2 after being asked to bat. The pitch was, once again, very good for batting, there were blue skies as well and Australia were effectively one mammoth stand away from retaining the Ashes.
Smith threw it away, and, just like Headingley, everything eventually fell apart.
The 17 on Day 3 extended a pattern that, by now, the world is pretty much aware of: Smith the batter gets progressively worse as the match goes on. He averages 85.21 in the first innings of a Test, 55.19 in the second, 42.77 in the third and 28.38 in the fourth.
This, though, will not concern Australia as long as he delivers in the first innings. The problem, however, is that Smith is no longer guaranteeing big runs in the first innings.
The average of 31.00 in this Ashes comes on the back of an average of 29.00 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and an average of 30.50 in the home Ashes in 2021/22 — the last three ‘big’ bilateral series’ he’s played, if you can call them that.
In these three series’, Smith has averaged only 36.77 in the first innings (first two innings of the Test), striking a solitary ton. Granted he’s had to play on some pretty challenging surfaces, but that he’s gone big just once in 13 Tests should be a huge cause for concern for Australia.
There’s been no real pattern to Smith’s dismissals in this Ashes — Broad has got him nicking both off the outside and inside edge; he’s been pinned LBW twice and has been done by the short ball twice; he’s been dismissed by Moeen once — but what looks beyond questionable is the fact that Wood has his number.
Since the start of the last Ashes, Smith’s now been dismissed by Wood 4 times in 64 balls. The right-hander has struggled to handle the express pace of the Durham man, against whom he’s averaged just 10 in this period.
This alone might prompt England to risk Wood for a third consecutive Test next week at The Oval, despite there only being a three-day turnaround between Tests.
It goes without saying that Smith, much like every other Australian batter, would much rather not see Wood play at The Oval but it’s evident that Smith’s problems in this series have extended beyond just Wood, so he’ll have plenty of problems to tackle and solve in a week’s time.
Smith could have saved Australia on two separate occasions here at Old Trafford but, as things stand, the only thing that can save the visitors is rain.
Regardless of the result, though, Smith will have to make amends at The Oval. It feels weird to say this, but we’ve come to the point in this series where Smith owes his team a special knock.
