His contributions led to Australia retaining the urn on English soil for the first time since 2001, but the series was drawn. Then, playing his first Tests since his year-long ban for his part in the sandpaper scandal of 2018, he made an extraordinary 774 runs, including three hundreds, despite fearful stick from the crowds and missing the unforgettable third Test at Headingley with concussion. Smith’s 2019 will take some topping, but he is in bullish mood. We probably haven’t adapted well enough when we’ve been over for the last 20 years.” “The sun or clouds change it you’ve got to be able to adapt. “The conditions, the wicket sometimes, the Dukes ball is obviously different to the Kookaburra back home,” he said. These three matches provide a head start. That said, he accepts that the conditions are unique, and Australia have not adapted well enough to them in recent times. Smith, who turns 34 next month, first played Test cricket in England in 2013 and has six centuries, and an average of 59.6 – a tick below his career figure of 59.8 – in 16 matches on these shores, and very little is new to him. “I’ve seen a lot of talk about getting used to conditions but you’ve got to remember I’ve played a lot of cricket in England before, so conditions aren’t really new to me,” he said. In his third and final match, he will be up against Marnus Labuschagne’s Glamorgan. Sussex’s decision – which their head coach Paul Farbrace described as “very easy” – has been criticised in some quarters, with the English game accused of giving their fiercest rivals a leg-up in a manner that is never reciprocated. Smith was on genial form as he was unveiled at Hove, but he is aware of the divisive nature of his signing. The great Australian batsman has arrived for a fourth – and, he accepts, likely final – Ashes summer in England, which got off to the worst possible start in the Hove nets on Monday when he was bowled leaving a ball from Ollie Robinson – a team-mate now and opponent later – in the nets.
Steve Smith hopes that, starting with the perfect preparation in a three-match stint for Sussex, he is embarking on a tour of England even more run-drenched than his last, in 2019, that leads to ticking an item off his “bucket list” by winning the Ashes away from home.
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