Obsessive Smith out to get back into his zone

There are few more obsessively driven characters on the global cricket circuit than Australia captain Steve Smith.

But even the compulsive trainer who has been known to carry more than 20 bats in his kit bag, have his girlfriend Dani Willis feed balls into a bowling machine to hone his technique and recently instructed his bat manufacturer to swap the "whippy" rubber-based handles for more rigid cork ones admits he lifted himself to a rare level last week.

When, as he willed himself to a match-defining century in Australia's second innings on a crumbling pitch at Pune, he found himself "in the zone" such was his zeal to push his team to a rare Test win in India.

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Smith has cut a distinctively focused figure since the Australians arrived in India last month.

Having experienced the low point of his 15-month Test captaincy last November when Australia was humiliated by South Africa in Hobart and wholesale changes to playing personnel were wrought, the 27-year-old has grown palpably as a leader.

Swiftly uniting his new group for a Test win over the Proteas in Adelaide a week after the Hobart debacle, making short work of Pakistan in the three matches that followed and then setting his sights on the four-Test Qantas Tour of India.

In the very clear understanding that this campaign loomed as both history changing and captaincy defining, given that only two Australia skippers in the past half a century - Bill Lawry in 1969 and Adam Gilchrist (standing in for an injured Ricky Ponting) in 2004 – have overseen triumphant tours to the subcontinent.

And so, with Australia in the ascendancy at Pune after batting solidly on day one and knocking over India's vaunted batting line-up in the blink of an eye on the second afternoon, Smith went to the wicket at the end of the first over in the second innings on a very clear mission.

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"I guess (I was) what they call, 'in the zone' out there," Smith said today in describing his mindset in making 109, the only individual century of the opening Test.

"I was doing things that I probably haven't done before.

"My eyes were sort of spinning and I was in a bit of a trance and to get to those, I think I've been there a couple of times in that kind of mindset.

"For me it was just such an important period of the game and I knew if we could get to 300 (ahead of India) or over that, what we got to on the night of day two, I thought we'd be a real good chance to win.

"That afternoon, I was very determined and focused on the job at hand to try and get as many as we could.

"And I guess if it calls for it again, hopefully I can bring that next level out, and next gear out.

"It was pleasing to know I had that level in me."

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The value of Smith's hundred, his 18th in 51 Tests, which is inferior only to Sir Donald Bradman (29) and India's Sunil Gavaskar (20) at the same point in their famous careers, was invaluable if judged by multiple criteria.

Not only was he able to find a means on a most alien surface to survive (albeit being dropped four times along the way) and become the only batter in the match to surpass 70.

He did it in the second innings when conditions become even more challenging – only Mark Taylor (1998) and Damien Martyn (2004) have previously posted second innings hundreds for Australia in India – and he was involved in a series of crucial partnerships along the way.

Being at the wicket as Australia's extended from a useful 165 to an insurmountable 401 when he was the seventh man dismissed on what proved to be the final afternoon at Pune.

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But such is Smith's single-minded determination as he eyes a series win that not even the most one-eyed Australia supporter dared to envisage, he has already consigned that knock to the vault of history.

And has his unblinking gaze firmly fixed on the return bout that begins on what's expected to be a far more sporting pitch at Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium tomorrow.

Where the threat posed by India's spin pair Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja might be counter-intuitively heightened by the fact the ball is unlikely to spin as sharply, and similarly doubtful it will fizz as harmlessly and regularly past the edge of probing Australia bats as a result.

"It was a great achievement," Smith said of the opening Test win, Australia's first anywhere in Asia since 2011.

"I was really proud of the way the boys played last week, but it's only one game of cricket in a four-Test series.

"Hopefully we can do that really well again this week, and have more success.

"This wicket, first innings it looks like it probably won't take as much turn so it's about summing it up again and I still think the danger ball is going to be the one that goes straight on.

"So making sure we get that covered, and you've got to be willing to sacrifice certain things and willing to get out certain ways.

"In these conditions, if we're willing to edge it to the slips then you live with that you don't want to get hit on the pads.

"That's been an issue for a while with this group, where we've been getting hit on the pads (playing in Asian conditions).

"So be willing to get out caught at slip, and we're okay with that."

Teams

India squad (for first two Tests): Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandaran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Karun Nair, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund, Hardik Pandya.

Australia XI: David Warner, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (c), Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade (wk), Mitchell Starc, Stephen O'Keefe, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.

Australia's schedule in India

Feb 17-19, Tour match v India A, Mumbai

Feb 23-27, First Test: Australia won by 333 runs, Pune

Mar 4-8, Second Test, Bengaluru

Mar 16-20, Third Test, Ranchi

Mar 25-29, Fourth Test, Dharamsala