London:On Thursday, a dream that Steve Smith believed would only ever be a dream will come true. He would participate in the 100th Test for his nation, a game he had dreamed and pictured his entire life. In his boyhood naps, when playing backyard cricket with pals, at the club he attended as a child in a Sydney suburb, and even in the hallways of hotel rooms, he would picture himself entering the stadium for his 100th Test match to rippling acclaim. Now look at him.
His attempt to recreate the fictional world in reality in his 100th Test is essentially a triumph of his imagination. Other qualities include his buzzing problem-solving mind, unwavering love and devotion to the game of batting, childlike enthusiasm for the sport, deft wrists and hands, watchful eyes and twinkle feet, steel of will, and adaptability of technique. But every Smith milestone is ultimately a victory over his capacity for imagination.
Only someone with such extraordinary creativity could think of something so novel. In that regard, he stands apart among copies. In this universe, everyone tries to be someone they're not, wants to be someone they're not, or is shown as someone else.
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It is safe to believe that no one has ever existed quite like him and that no one ever will. Not among the top three batsmen in his country who have now scored more runs than him; not among the ten other greats who have amassed more hundreds; not among his batting peers, where he occupies the top spot. Even if he didn't wind up piling a crate full of timeless recordings, he would leave one day with the cool confidence of having created something uniquely distinctive and irreplaceable.
Smith's hitting may take some getting used to; rarely is it love at first sight. Hard-nosed cynics continue tormenting him because of it. But once you get used to him, he becomes inescapably compelling. witnessing Smith bat is the most unique experience in the modern game, comparable to witnessing Shane Warne create wrist-spin illusions or to watching a ball of leather recite poetry at Wasim Akram's wrists. He is the ringmaster of his own circus and his own theater. He is a multi-faceted spectacle; unlike both batsmen, he performs things before the ball is bowled and after the shot is completed in addition to what he does to the ball. These are routines for other batsmen.But when handled by Smith, it becomes an occasion. Almost a sui generis.
Meeting the ball, which is the game's main objective, looks inconsequential, almost like a justification for his pre-ball maneuvers and post-stroke etiquette. The bowler is flinching and flapping as he enters his strides, as if he had been wearing sticky garments, and instead of shuffles, he leaps over with spread feet and whirly limbs that strain your eyes. The flourish is also very detailed. He frowns, grimaces, gasps, growls, traces the ball's path with his hands, and occasionally breaks into a soliloquy. But everything had a rhyme or reason to it. When you remove one word or sentence from the finest literature, the entire paragraph comes apart.
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The purpose of the trigger movement itself is a reaction to what he perceives is biggest weakness, outside the off- stump. In his doctrine, there is nothing as sinful as nicking behind. “For me it’s about trying to minimise the ways that you get out. If guys get me out lbw, I say well played, congratulations but, if I nick one off, that’s when I get upset at myself.”
However, stop time when he plays the ball. Everything that happens before and after is focused on that precise moment when the ball collides with the bat directly under his eyes as his head stands majestically motionless in line with the ball. All of the anticipation and relief is leading up to that one decisive moment. He has plenty of time and space to choose the gap and the stroke, as well as to determine whether or not to leave the ball. He is where he wants to be, how he wants to be, and at the time he wants to be.
A glittering simplicity, unwavering application of the batting's sacred fundamentals of being still and balanced, meeting the ball with the full visage of the bat, and the batting descending in a straight-line from its crooked pre-delivery projection are crunched in the unconventional and baroque. In contrast to custom, he frequently faces the ball chest-on with two eyes open. In turn, the strategy enables him sweet-spot the ball more than most batters due to his exceptional hand-eye coordination and early length judgment skills. In this way, he conveys the dual complexity and simplicity of batting.
His career is based on his passion for hitting, commitment to the game, sweat and tears, hurt and pride, and above all, his unbounded capacity for imagination. And a wish comes true. He is one of cricket's great originals, and his batting is not a tribute to nonconformity or an advocate of the rebellious.
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