Fearless Smith writing his own textbook

English cricket fans who tuned in to watch the Indian Premier League debut of Ben Stokes on Thursday were given an ominous reminder of just how tough this year's Ashes series in Australia will be when the tournament's most-expensive overseas player was upstaged by Steve Smith.

Stokes was bought for $AUD 2.8million by the Rising Pune Supergiant, a fee that means he will earn more this year than any previous England player in the history of the game. 

The Durham allrounder's price tag has certainly raised eyebrows in the UK but so, too, has Smith, his captain at Pune who continued his blistering form from Australia's recent Test series in India with a match-winning unbeaten 84 from 54 balls.

One man who knows Smith better than most is Michael Di Venuto, the former Australia batting coach who is now head coach at Surrey.

And the Tasmanian, who left the Baggy Green set-up last year to move to England, is not surprised at Smith's current hot streak, which included three Test hundreds in Australia's 2-1 defeat in India.

Quick Single: Lynnsanity returns in record IPL stand

"He's going alright at the moment isn't he?" Di Venuto said of Smith. "I had three years as batting coach with Steve just when he came back into the squad.

"He was on the fringes on the last Indian tour in 2013 and as a partnership we grew from there, got to know each other quite well and he's certainly going quite nicely at the moment.

"I'm not surprised by anything that Steven does or David Warner. They're two very driven cricketers who want to be the best they possibly can. 

"They train hard and everything goes into playing every single day for Australia. They don't want to miss playing cricket for their country and their life is like that. They train hard, do all the right things to be the best players they possibly can so nothing surprises me about what either of those two do."

Many observers, especially in England, have been surprised that Smith's far-from-textbook technique has proved so productive. 

But Di Venuto, the man who worked so closely with Smith when he started taking his game to another level back in the 2014-15 summer, says the volume of runs by his former charge makes all talk of his method irrelevant.

Quick Single: Ponting wary of Smith's workload

"He's exceptionally talented," said Di Venuto. "What's textbook? In this day and age we're seeing so many different batters through the form of Twenty20, one-day and Test cricket. Players can do so much it's almost like the floodgates through Twenty20 have been opened. 

"There's no fear and the best are continually pushing themselves and pushing the boundaries and doing things that just weren't the norm back in the day. 

"So I find the whole technique thing an interesting question and what I always come back to is well what's the perfect technique? Whose got it?

"The name of the game is to score runs and if you can stay out there do that you must have a pretty decent technique."

England, of course, know managing to stem the flow of runs from Smith's bat will be key if they are to have any hope of winning this year's Ashes series, which will start at the Gabba on November 23. 

Di Venuto, though, believes the likes of Stokes and the rest of England's attack will need a huge slice of luck if they are going to do that.

Quick Single: Anderson's huge praise for Hameed

"We've just seen Virat Kohli, one of the best players in the world, going through a little period of not scoring runs (in the recent Tests against Australia)," he said. "David Warner exactly the same. It happens to all batters for whatever reason but they tend to bounce back pretty hard as well.

"If England get lucky and Steve Smith's is in one of those periods…well good luck.

"Conditions, bowlers on their day – he gets out like any other batter gets out. He makes mistakes occasionally like every batter makes mistakes.

"He's not exactly Don Bradman, who didn't make too many mistakes, and the Don got out as well so that's the game. Good luck."

Ashes ticket sales key dates

April 23: Cut-off date to join the ACF

May 1: Tickets on sale to ACF Gold members

May 3: Tickets on sale to all ACF members

May 8: Tickets on sale to the general public

Click here to join the Australian Cricket Family. FAQs about the ACF can be found here

2017-18 International Fixtures:

Men's Ashes Series

First Test Gabba, November 23-27

Second Test Adelaide Oval, December 2-6 (Day-Night)

Third Test Perth TBC, December 14-18

Fourth Test MCG, December 26-30

Fifth Test SCG, January 4-8 (Pink Test)

ODI Series v England

First ODI MCG, January 14

Second ODI Gabba, January 19

Third ODI SCG, January 21

Fourth ODI Adelaide Oval, January 26

Fifth ODI Perth TBC, January 28

Prime Minister's XI

PM's XI v England Manuka Oval, February 2

T20 trans-Tasman Tri-Series

First T20I Australia v NZ, SCG, February 3

Second T20I – Australia v England, Blundstone Arena, February 7

Third T20I – Australia v England, MCG, February 10

Fourth T20I – NZ v England, Wellington, February 14

Fifth T20I – NZ v Australia, Eden Park, February 16

Sixth T20I – NZ v England, Seddon Park, February 18

Final – TBC, Eden Park, February 21