Smith yearns to turn Asian tide

Steven Smith leans down the wicket to a Steve O’Keefe ball drifting towards leg stump. Australia’s captain closes the face to whip through the leg side but does so too early, drawing an edge in the direction of slip. It is three days before the start of the first Test against Sri Lanka.

As O’Keefe celebrates his little victory in the Pallekele nets, Smith chides himself tersely. “That’s shit batting,” he blurts. Later, he runs past a Nathan Lyon delivery angled across him from round the wicket, and later still cops a blow to the inner thigh from a Mitchell Marsh effort ball that pops off the surface.

These moments are apt showings of Australia’s vulnerability in subcontinental conditions; moments they must avoid to win this series, and next year’s in India. Smith has preached adaptability since he was formally appointed captain after the loss of the Ashes in England last year. Now he and his team face the first real test of their resolve to do so. Save for a series win over lowly Bangladesh in 2006, Australia have won one of 15 Asian Tests since 2004.

“We’d like to turn that around,” Smith said in Pallekele. “I think we’ve won one game out of our last 15 in the subcontinent. It’s about making sure you have a plan from ball one as soon as you get out there and each individual is different. I’ve seen a lot of the guys practicing the sweep shot, guys coming down the wicket, batting deep in the crease and things like that. It’s about making sure you’re doing it from ball one and not waiting until you’re 15 or 20, because you can make a mistake before that.

“So it’s about doing it from ball one and making sure you have that plan and you’re doing it the whole time. I think that’s how you have to play in the subcontinent. You have to take different parts of the game, different tempos of the game along with you as well. There’ll be times when they want to attack and you might get more scoring options and times when they want to be a bit more defensive. You have to be patient with that at the same time. The guys know what to expect, we’ve trained really hard being here the past two weeks and we’re ready to go.”

It cannot be said that the Australians are …

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