Brisbane Test match: Australian captain Steven Smith has class

I am writing this as the Australian tail wags on, even after taking nearly a hundred-run lead over India’s first innings score in the Brisbane Test match.

The man of the moment, though — whatever the result of the match — is Steven Peter Devereaux Smith, the new captain of Australia, and all of 25 years and 200 days old, and playing only his 24th Test. When Michael Clarke limped away from the field during the first Test at Adelaide, he handed over the reins to his vice-captain Brad Haddin. Haddin presided over an Australian victory, aided by some superb bowling and also irresponsible batting by the Indians.

Youth

However, when it was clear that Clarke was out of the series, the Australian selectors chose Smith as captain, superceding Haddin. The selectors have taken a long view. Haddin is 37 years old, and with Clarke increasingly plagued by a bad back and a devil of a hamstring, they wanted to anoint the next and future captain, a man who would still have possibly a decade of cricket ahead of him when Clarke calls it a day.

There are only two men younger than Smith in the Australian team he is leading — Mitchell Marsh, who is playing only his third Test, and Josh Hazlewood, who is making his debut. Of course, Smith is not the youngest man ever to captain a Test team — he is only the 34th youngest. Many great players have become captain at an earlier age — Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev of India, Javed Miandad of Pakistan, Ian Botham, David Gower, Mike Atherton and Alistair Cook of England, Stephen Fleming of New Zealand, and Hansie Cronje of South Africa.

Some of them have been great captains, some have been failures.

Other young players have come to the captaincy suddenly, under circumstances beyond their control. Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, 21 years and 77 days old, had to take over the team in only his fourth Test when Nari Contractor was felled by a Charlie Griffith bouncer. Kim Hughes became captain of Australia when Kerry Packer contracted all the leading Australian players for his World Series Cricket, and the Australian board barred them from the national team.

Graeme Smith, barely 22 years and eight Tests old, was catapulted to the South African captaincy when the administrators decided to start a new chapter under a leader who had no history with the earlier scam-tainted team led by Cronje (Cronje was replaced by Shaun Pollock, but in two years time, the South African Board decided on a radical shakeout).

Smith’s case is interesting since, though always recognised as a fine unorthodox talent, he has bloomed only in the last 18 months or so. He debuted for Australia in 2010, but was dropped after four Tests, and was not selected again for two years.

Unsure

One reason for this was that no one — including possibly Smith — knew what he was. He had started life as leg-spinner trained by Shane Warne, but one who could also bat a bit. Over time, he became an attacking middle-order batsman who could turn his arm round when required. He did not fit into naturally into any one scheme of things.

The problem was solved when Smith came to India in March 2013 as a fullfledged batsman. Since then, in 35 Test innings, he has scored six 100s and seven 50s, and has yanked his batting average up to nearly 49. In the three innings he has played against India in the ongoing series, he has scored 162 not out, 52 not out, and 133, all at a strike rate of 70 and above. The 133 he has scored at Brisbane was the first time he came put to bat as captain of Australia, which, like in India, is generally considered to be the second most important job in the country, after the Prime Minister’s.

Schoolboy

Smith looks even younger than his 25 years; he could easily pass off as a senior schoolboy. The difference is even starker when he stands — with his perennially cheerful expression — next to teammates like Haddin, David Warner or Mitchell Johnson, mean-looking tattooed toughies who have brought on at least one nervous breakdown and several early retirements in rival teams. These blokes remind you of the hard men who Ian Chappell led in the 1970s — Lillee, Thomson, Marsh — streetfighting cricketers who looked at cricket was war without the shooting. And Chappell, of course, was the hardest of them all — aggressive, ruthless, giving no quarter to anyone ever. Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting carried on that spirit, with teams that looked less fierce than Chappell’s — less of the bushy moustaches and flying hair and bloodshot baleful glares. Border, Waugh and Ponting looked, well, captain-like. Michael Clarke, of course, was the golden-haired cherub, and no wonder his nickname is "Pup". But he has not lacked steel. Certainly one of the greatest batsmen of his generation — the only man in history to score four double centuries in a year, he also had the mental strength as a captain to pick up his team after a thorough bashing in an Ashes series and return the favour with interest in the next one.

Will this schoolboyish captain live up to the standards set by his predecessors? He has curbed his natural only-way-to-bat-isto-hit-the-damn-leather-out-of-the ground instincts and has given ample evidence that he can now spend a lot of time at the pitch, pace his innings, and not throw away his wicket following a rush of blood to his head. From what little we have seen of his as a captain, he seems to be a quick thinker, pro-active and cool. Here’s wishing you all the best, mate.