Smith's path to 'perfection' forged in one-day arena

Of the 154 innings that yielded 5800 runs in an ODI career now foreclosed, it might just be a seemingly perfunctory knock in a largely unspectacular bilateral game against England in 2022 that is among Steve Smith's most consequential.

There had been more substantial contributions (his 164 against New Zealand in 2016) and those made in more compelling circumstances (the 105 in a World Cup semi-final that Smith rates his 50-over benchmark), but few have proved as pivotal as his unbeaten 80 at Adelaide Oval that November evening.

By his own admission, that freewheeling hand from just 78 balls faced – laced with nine fours and a six that crowned Australia's six-wicket win – was the best he'd felt at the crease in years.

Given that preceding stretch of time included some remarkable runs of form including his dominant (if ultimately unsuccessful) 2017 Test series in India and his triumphant return in the 2019 Ashes, it was a significant assessment.

And it spawned the viral video moment when, after cracking a sumptuous front-foot drive between two fielders to the cover boundary, Smith smiled as he quipped to his then-batting partner David Warner: "I'm back baby".

"(It) was probably the best I've felt in about six years," Smith said after that innings, which would be quickly followed by 200no in a Test against West Indies, a ton against South Africa, 121 in the World Test Championship final and 110 in his 100th Test at Lord's that helped Australia retain the Ashes.

"I just felt, a couple of the cover drives I hit, I know I'm batting really well when I've got my weight going through the ball.

"We're always looking for perfection, and for me (that) was as close to perfection as I will get."

It says much about Smith's approach to batting that his judgement was based on what he felt rather than figures the scoreboard showed.

In this case, it was the revised stance and technique at the crease that reduced the exaggerated 'trigger' movements and saw him more static and side-on at bowlers' release.

But then again, the raw numbers of his batting output will always speak for themselves even if his remarkable ODI return has told its full story now that he's called time on 50-over cricket while remaining available for Tests and T20Is.

His 5800 runs at an average of 43.28 with 12 centuries and a strike rate of 86.96 has him 12th on the all-time list of Australia batters in the one-day arena.

What that top-line summary doesn't reveal is that he and fellow former Australia skipper Steve Waugh are the only members of that lauded dozen who never had the opportunity to open the batting in an ODI where the heaviest scorers historically tend to bat.

Instead, Smith worked his way up the batting order from number seven where he was initially deployed primarily as a leg-spin bowler, to the top four where he would prove integral to Australia's World Cup wins in 2015 and 2023.

From his ODI debut as a cherubic 20-year-old against the West Indies in Melbourne in February 2010 to the time he answered an SOS more than four years later Smith was seen as a bits-and-pieces player rather than an essential piece of the selection puzzle.

His batting was deprived of opportunities in the lower-order, while his looping leg-spin could be expensive in the shortened format and top-order part-timers David Hussey and captain Michael Clarke were viewed as equally effective options.

Smith's chance came in Zimbabwe during a low-key 2014 triangular tournament featuring the host nation and South Africa, where Clarke suffered a badly torn hamstring less than a year before Australia was to stage the World Cup along with New Zealand.

Thrust into the number three role for the first time, Smith performed creditably enough to retain the job for the subsequent campaign against Pakistan in the UAE where he peeled off a maiden ODI hundred at Sharjah.

Another unbeaten ton against England at Hobart months later meant he kept the coveted job at first drop for the home World Cup, ultimately sealing Australia's success with the winning boundary against New Zealand in the MCG final.

He was then appointed Australia's ODI captain when Clarke stepped down in the wake of that triumph.

But it was his 105 off 93 balls in the cut-throat semi-final against India at the SCG three days earlier – having gone to the wicket in the match's fourth over with Australia 1-15 – that remained Smith's defining hand, and the ODI innings he rated above all others.

Regarded by many of his peers and mentors as the foremost on-field problem solver of his time, Smith's clarity of thinking was at its most obvious under the high-stakes pressure of the ICC's quadrennial showpiece tournament.

It was also at the 2019 World Cup in the UK that Smith made his return to international cricket following his 12-month suspension from the Cape Town sandpaper incident and was welcomed back by incessant cat-calling and jeering from the terraces.

After being dismissed for 18 in his comeback ODI against Afghanistan at Bristol, Smith peeled off scores of 73 (against West Indies), 69 (India), 73 (Sri Lanka) and 85 in Australia's semi-final loss to eventual winners England.

That run of white-ball scores also paved the way for his dismantling of England's Test bowlers as Australia retained the Ashes away from home for the first time since 2001.

He even extended his golden touch to the bowling crease during that World Cup campaign, claiming the scalp of NZ's Colin de Grandhomme with the first ball of his spell sent down in a crucial group game at Lord's.

It was Smith's 28th, and final ODI wicket.

Only Ricky Ponting (46) and his equally legendary teammate Glenn McGrath (39) have chalked up more World Cup appearances than Smith's 34, and they were part of the golden era when Australia went undefeated at the event from 1999 to 2007.

And of the 'big four' batters of the modern era, only India's Virat Kohli – who was player of the match in last night's Champions Trophy semi-final at Dubai that proved Smith's swansong – can claim more World Cup outings with 37 at an even better success rate (80 per cent to Smith's 76.5).

However, Smith can point to two winners' medals compared to one apiece for Kohli (in 2011) and England's Joe Root (2019), while the fourth member of that celebrated quartet Kane Williamson owns none despite New Zealand twice reaching the final.

Smith's output of 1136 World Cup runs at 42.07 is dwarfed only by Ponting (1743 at 45.87) and Warner (1527 at 56.56) among Australia batters, while Kohli's 1795 at 59.83 is the benchmark for the contemporary 'big four' of which the Australian is the first to formalise a white-ball retirement.

While his performances on the biggest stages characterised his 15-year ODI career, his richest vein of form was arguably produced in front of meagre crowds at the SCG where capacity was reduced to 50 per cent because of the Covid pandemic in late 2020.

In consecutive 50-over games against India that summer, Smith crunched scores of 105 (off 66 balls) and then 104 (off 64).

He would produce just one more ODI ton – a hard-fought 105 on a sluggish Cairns pitch against NZ almost two years later – which was also the innings before he announced so emphatically he was "back baby" at Adelaide Oval.

Now, after 170 one-day appearances that yielded two World Cups, Australia Men's ODI Player of the Year awards in 2015 and 2021 and inclusion in the ICC's ODI Team of the Year in 2015, Smith is gone from the 50-over game.

But as long as he's involved in the other two international formats, his quest for batting perfection will surely continue.

2025 ICC Men's Champions Trophy

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Australia's Group B fixtures

February 22: Australia beat England by five wickets

February 25: No result v South Africa

February 28: No result v Afghanistan

March 4: Semi-final 1: India beat Australia by four wickets

March 5: Semi-final 2, South Africa v New Zealand

March 9: Final, India v TBC, Dubai (8pm AEDT)

Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Spencer Johnson, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Adam Zampa