England plot Plan B for 'problem solver' Smith

England's biggest problem over the past three men's Ashes campaigns is also among cricket's great problem solvers, and the question of how to stop Steve Smith is again looming large for the tourists ahead of Wednesday's Vodafone Ashes opener in Brisbane.

Smith, the world's number two ranked Test batter behind England skipper Joe Root, has enjoyed record-breaking Ashes series both home and away in the past four years, the right-hander producing Bradmanesque numbers including one sequence of runs-scoring that not even the Don himself ever quite matched.

"The last couple of years I've obviously had a bit of success against them," Smith said understatedly today. "Sometimes you can get in rhythms against certain bowlers and feel like you're on top of them.

"But they're also quality bowlers and I'm sure they'll come with some good plans, but for me it's just about adapting on the go and solving problems while I'm out there in the middle, and that's one thing I've done well the last four or five years."

In the UK in 2019, Smith failed to reach 80 only once from seven innings, piling on 774 runs and regularly coming to Australia's rescue through a drawn series in which the visitors' top order repeatedly failed.

And in the most recent Ashes campaign on home soil, Smith's 687 runs included three hundreds and came at an average of 137.40.

Across the two series, England's bowlers tried various tactics against the prolific right-hander, all of them in vain. Midway through the final Test at The Oval in 2019, after Smith had posted scores of 76 or more in 10 consecutive Ashes innings, Root's men looked utterly exhausted by the Australian, and bereft of answers.

"Steve, I think is brilliant problem solver," Root told cricket.com.au. "He works guys out, he learns how to master each condition and the different surfaces he comes up against.

"If you pose a plan to him, he finds a way to get through it."

New Zealand notably kept Smith quiet across three Tests in Australia's 2019-20 home summer, largely owing to a short-ball tactic that was expertly employed by left-armer Neil Wagner. England do not have a left-arm paceman at their disposal on this tour.

India meanwhile, looked to choke Smith's scoring options in a bid to frustrate him.

"It's very difficult to replicate what Wagner does," Smith told cricket.com.au during the Australian winter. "He's very good at what he does with his short stuff – the way he does it, the fields he sets and the angle he creates.

"He's done it to not just me but plenty of batsmen around the world over the last few years, which would be indicative of where he is in the current rankings."

India's approach to Smith last summer was different again; on flatter pitches, they looked to choke his scoring with clever field placements and little width.

"I wasn't too surprised with the way India came at me last summer," Smith added. "It was more about just trying to stop me scoring for a lot of the time – they were just trying to 'out-patient' me, in a way, and I think they probably got the better of me in the first couple of Tests, and then I got going in Sydney, where I actually started to bat a bit better as well (and made 131)."

As for where it leaves England with their tactics, Smith isn't too concerned. The 32-year-old insists he feels well equipped to deal with whatever might be thrown at him across the five Tests.

"I think I've got my game pretty well set now, and then I think there's just minor tweaks that need to come in place depending on who I'm playing against, where I'm playing and what's coming at me," he added. "Being able to adapt is the most important thing for me in terms of longevity; people come up with different plans – different fields, different ways of attacking you – and it's up to you to be good enough to counter what comes at you.

"That for me is what I try and improve each day – just my thought process on how I want to go about it.

"My technique is my technique, and I've got that down pat, so now it's all in the mind and getting that thought process in place to firstly have an idea of what they're going to do, but then if that isn't what comes, it becomes about finding a way to adapt to whatever it is out in the middle as quickly as possible."

Speaking at the Gabba today, England quick Mark Wood said England would be repeating India's tactics of trying to contain his scoring options, adding there would be a particular focus from the tourists on the earliest part of his innings.

"Steve's Smith obviously one of the key wickets – if not the key wicket – for us to get," Wood said. "We've got to be on it for his first 20 balls … because that's the best chance we've got of getting him out.

"We had a plan last time and he combated that really well. Last series he was brilliant, so this one we've got to try and step it up again, put him under pressure and implement the plan that the captain wants.

"It might have to change mid-game – we've got to be prepared for that. We look at every player and how we can best get them out, but we've got to have a Plan B because with someone like him, if it's not working, you've got to try something different."

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: December 8-12, The Gabba

Second Test: December 16-20, Adelaide Oval

Third Test: December 26-30, MCG

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Perth Stadium