Steve Smith, Gabba, century. Not a surprising combination of words, for a player with a 10th of his career runs at the venue, one decent innings away from taking that number past 1,000. More surprising given the way that contemporary Smith has been grinding away for a long while without notable success, an engine revving that won’t turn over.
![[Steve Smith hits at the crease]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/09c73f491f52f61f8ed116493d185f78fce8d3ad/0_269_4039_2424/master/4039.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
His hundred on day two of the third Test against India on Sunday was his fourth in Brisbane, and could not have been more different to the other three. India in 2014 and Pakistan in 2016 were breezy, boundaries flying, Smith in purple pomp. England in 2017 was a masterpiece of concentration, 326 balls faced, striking at barely 40, batting eight and a half hours to hold together an innings that was slipping away. Never had he worked harder, yet even at its toughest, it still never seemed that he would actually get out. He was so good that success seemed preordained.
In this different era of Smith, the coin has found its inverse. The last few years, blinking in confusion at having been transported back to the realm of mortals, survival has become the side less likely. Struggle is the given, success the exception. Through his first 30 runs today, into his third hour either side of the lunch break, Smith looked close to falling time and again.
Back to wandering around the crease, a shift in technique from Adelaide and Perth, his adjustment had not had time to click. He was slow on the ball, pushing outside off stump, reaching awkwardly around the front pad to keep the ball out. Nudges down the leg side were risky. Thigh pads got battered. Edges landed safe. Three moments were closest: a swinging Mohammed Siraj yorker that he got a corner of timber to; a ball padded away that was umpire’s call on kissing the off bail; and an inside edge that cleared the stumps and beat the keeper’s glove.
