Patience a virtue for captain Smith

New Australia Test captain Steve Smith is prepared to adopt the ‘patience is a virtue’ maxim on Australia’s two-Test tour of Bangladesh next month.

In an age where T20 cricket dominates the summer landscape and fans demand their runs in sixes and their wickets falling regularly, Smith is already experienced enough to know that it’s the long game that so often wins out during grinding Test match affairs on flat subcontinental pitches.

Australia could well have overstepped the fine line between bold and foolish in such tussles in the past, refusing to stray from their proudly aggressive strategies and suffering as a consequence.

WATCH: Smith undecided on batting order

In fact, the men in Baggy Green’s most famous success on the subcontinent this century – a 2-1 series win in India in 2004 – was largely built on a defensive game plan that saw the fast-bowling trio of Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz bowl well outside the line of off stump in order to test the patience of India’s all-star batting line-up.

"I think that's something I'm going to have to adapt to with my captaincy," said Smith, who was yesterday named as a Sydney Sixers ambassador for the Sony Foundation's You Can Program, which aims to raise funds and awareness for youth cancer.

"In Australia you can be a little bit more attacking.

“In places on the subcontinent you've got to find ways to get batsmen out, you might have to bore them out. For me it's about being adaptable wherever we play.

"So you might have to be more defensive with that and when the ball starts to spin and reverse swing, that's when you can attack.”

WATCH: Reverse swing skills improving: Starc

The spin and reverse swing factors are both clearly and understandably at the forefront of the Australians’ thinking ahead of Bangladesh.

Victorian Peter Siddle, the most experienced member of the squad, was adamant that the reversing ball would play a significant role in the series.

Siddle has never played in Bangladesh but has five Tests behind him in neighbouring India, as well as one in Sri Lanka and two in the United Arab Emirates.

WATCH: Siddle primed for another opportunity

“A big part of my game, especially in Australian conditions, has been reverse swing,” he said. “That does benefit me a lot over there, and what I normally do is what I’ll do over there; be patient, build pressure and bowl in the right areas.

“It doesn’t matter what conditions you’re bowling in, those same traits work anywhere.

"(Mitchell) Starc’s probably going to (take) one spot with his pace and his skill with the reverse swing, and then you probably need someone who can hold up an end, build some pressure and try to generate wickets as well.

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“And I think my experience, not in Bangladesh, but in those conditions, will help, and the performances I’ve had on similar-type wickets here in Australia, especially in Adelaide – I’ve got a good record over in Adelaide in Shield and Test cricket – I think that will play a part as well.”

Siddle also said that new inclusion Andrew Fekete boasted similar bowling traits to himself, particularly with an ability to swing the old ball, while coach Darren Lehmann added that he expected pitches to be favourable for spin, which could lead to the possible inclusion of all three spinning options in Nathan Lyon, Steve O’Keefe and allrounder Glenn Maxwell.

“We’ve got a good group where we can change our side depending on the wicket,” Lehmann said. “We did the same in the West Indies and it ended up that Fawad (Ahmed) didn’t play, we went with three quicks, but I think conditions will be more conducive to two spinners over there.”

O’Keefe earned his recall with a hugely impressive Australia A tour of India recently, in which he took 14 wickets in the two four-day games to give himself every chance of adding to his lone Test cap.