Cricket: England failing to get to Root of problem - Bounce Oz skipper

Australia's Steve Smith waves after winning their Ashes cricket test match against England. Photo / AP

Steve Smith has incredible career statistics: 22 centuries in 59 tests, an average of 60, and a ratio of converting half his 50s into hundreds. That is quite a transformation for a leg-spinner who came into the test side as a No8, but it has not surprised me because of his dedication and hard work.

He has worked his butt off to make himself the world No1. He is like Ricky Ponting in always being the first into nets and, having helped team-mates in practice, the last to leave. He isn't happy until he has hit 1000 balls perfectly.

He is a different style of captain from the other two I had for Australia, Ponting and Michael Clarke. He doesn't use words as much as they did, it is more about what he does on and off the field. You can see how aggressive Smith is when he throws the ball into the keeper, getting it as close to the batsman as possible.

His technique has been questioned but that only made him work harder.

During this Perth test I saw a photo of Don Bradman batting in a new book about the WACA Ground and Smith's grip is similar, with a very strong top hand and his bottom hand so far round the handle. Maybe that is part of Smith's secret in keeping the ball on the ground like Bradman did.

If I had to bowl at him now, I would bowl like I did in the nets — I treated it like a match and bounced the crap out of him. I would also have a go verbally at him, which I'm surprised England did not do in Perth after it worked well for them in Adelaide. In Brisbane, they tried lots of different things at Smith but again not at the WACA Ground. In particular, I could not understand why Joe Root didn't put James Anderson on when Smith first went in — and when he did put Anderson on, he had a deep square-leg and a deep cover, giving him easy runs to let him into the game.

Chris Woakes could have tried a lot more bouncers at Smith. Okay, let him get a few away but remember the square boundaries are really long in Perth, so often he is not going to get a four (the six he hooked off Stuart Broad went over fine leg).

Also try bowling some bouncers at him from around the wicket. He will move across his crease to the offside and that opens up the possibility of going for his pegs.

Remember, the Australian fast bowlers have been bowling bouncers from over and around the wicket — and this would be the equivalent of Pat Cummins, say, bowling bouncers over the wicket to Mark Stoneman or Dawid Malan.

Apart from bouncing him, I would bowl at Smith on fourth stump then try to push him wider and wider before going for a yorker behind his legs. The main thing is to get him driving outside off-stump on the front foot, but England were much too short of a length.

Or else, go the way Craig Overton did in the Adelaide test. Again try and drag him outside off-stump, setting him up for the off-cutter-type delivery on a knee-roll length.

New Zealand also tried posting a man round the corner for Smith's clip off his legs.

England have to find someone with extra pace, like Mark Wood. I played against him last week in the new Perth stadium and he was bowling 145km/h for the Lions. Wood could have done some damage if he had hit one of the cracks, like when Mitchell Starc bowled James Vince.

Another tactic for England to try is to get into his space. Put fielders in his eyeline when he is batting, and do it long enough until he finds it irritating. Anderson tried standing in front of Smith when he was non-striker, as he did in Adelaide, but Smith had scored 160 by then.

Nathan Lyon is very good at getting into the space of certain England players, not necessarily saying anything, just standing there.

The final frontier for Smith — as it is Virat Kohli, for the other candidate to be called the world's best batsman — is to succeed on green pitches in England, against bowlers like Anderson dragging them forward with away-swingers then the odd one that swings back.

Like Smith, Kohli doesn't back down. He trains as hard as he plays and he has transformed Indian cricket — when I played the last IPL the Indian test players were doing so much work in the gym.

In the next two English summers — 2018 when India tour and 2019 when Australia visit for the Ashes — we will see who conquers that final frontier.