Cricket: Spin kid turns into Don Bradman

Steve Smith's double-century at Lord's was pivotal in Australia winning the second test against England and squaring the Ashes series. Photo / AP

Steve Smith was so committed to making it as a leg-spinner, he used to arrive at the Kent factory he worked at with his fingers already bleeding.

It was the first time England caught sight of the blond-haired cricketer who, eight years later, would break open an Ashes series with the bat and write his name into the record books with a classy 215 at Lord's.

Smith heads into the third test starting on Wednesday evening (NZT) in Birmingham with an ever-growing portfolio that suggests he could be Australia's best batsman since Bradman even though the intention from the start was to turn him into the next Shane Warne.

Smith was so committed to the craft, he bled for it, and Australian cricket shared that same belief — to the point where a 17-year-old cricket-obsessed kid left school and headed to England armed with a list of secret recipes passed on by Warne himself.

Tony Ward was the best man at the wedding of Smith's parents and welcomed his best friend's homesick son into his home, his cricket club and his factory at Sevenoaks in Kent in 2007.

It didn't take long for the England Cricket Board to show some interest in Smith — he qualified for them through his mother — although under Ward's guardianship, they were briskly rebuffed.

Last week, Ward sat alongside Mr and Mrs Smith at Lord's as the world's No1 batsman, formerly known as the prodigious leg-spinner, produced an innings for the ages at the very ground where he debuted as Warnie incarnate back in 2011.

Michael Clarke threw him two overs of leg spin for old time's sake, but Ward didn't need to see that cameo to recall the extraordinary transformation.

"All the resources had gone into him as a spinner, there's no question at all about that, and he was dedicated to it," Ward said.

"His fingers would be bleeding when he'd be coming back from practice. The secrets and what have you that Mr Warne was throwing at him was quite interesting.

"I watched him play for the Duke of Norfolk XI against a Combined Services team and the routines he was going through was just baffling batsmen. But he did enjoy batting. He liked to go up the order because then you stay in longer."

That feeling of spending time in the middle has since turned into an obsession, and Smith is even doing the revered term 'Bradmanesque' some justice.

At 26, the Australian vice-captain is the youngest man to score 10 test centuries for Australia since Bradman and Neil Harvey did it aged 23 and 24 respectively.

Smith's career batting average of 58.52 is the best of any Australian to play more than 30 innings since The Don. In the first innings when matches are invariably won and lost, Smith averages an extraordinary 96.91 — a record bettered only by Bradman's 113.66 batting in the first dig. Smith's 215 at Lord's was again bettered only by Bradman, as was his scoring a hundred and a 50 in the one match.

Achieving something that Bradman hasn't already done is like trying to escape from your own shadow.

But otherwise Smith is in a league of his own. Team-mate David Warner, who has enjoyed considerable success in the past 24 months, is in awe of Smith.

He couldn't comprehend it when England bowler Stuart Broad and former spinner Graeme Swann questioned Smith's prospects of succeeding as a No 3 in UK conditions.

"The guy's No1 in the world for a reason," Warner said. "He's scored an enormous amount of runs and deserves all the credit in the world.

"People can talk about techniques, but you don't score runs unless you know how to play the game."

Ward admits Smith has probably exceeded expectations, but only in the sense he's now mastered a completely different skill-set to the one he originally set out trying to perfect.

"Cocky little sod," he said. "If anyone was going to do it, he would. He's very single-minded."

Smith made a big hundred in his return to Kent at the start of this Ashes tour, but there's no such thing as a home ground advantage for the boy from Sydney's Sutherland Shire any more. "I doubt he even knows what country he's in half the time," said Ward.

But has almost unparalleled success and standing changed Smith from the quiet, reserved teenager?

"There's not much to dislike about him really," said Ward. "The only difference now is he's more Bradman than Warne.