Smith seeks home comforts ahead of Gabba return

Adjusting to Australia conditions has historically posed the greatest challenge for visiting Test teams, but home-grown batting hero Steve Smith concedes that re-acquainting himself with local pace and bounce will be his focus over coming days at the Gabba.

Smith, who enters the coming Domain Test Series against Pakistan and New Zealand in the wake of record-breaking Ashes deeds in the UK, has rediscovered his red-ball form on pitches that bear little resemblance to what's expected in Brisbane this week.

The first Test of the summer against Pakistan, beginning on Thursday, is likely to be played on a traditionally true Gabba track that offers encouragement for pace bowlers and provides batters with confidence to play their strokes.

However, despite beginning his Marsh Sheffield Shield season at the Gabba – where he posted a rare pair of 'failures' (0 and 21) – Smith's past two first-class outings have come on low, slow pitches in Sydney.

The first of those, against Tasmania at Drummoyne Oval last month, brought an uncharacteristically sedate innings of 106 from 258 balls faced for the world's top-ranked Test batter.

Three weeks later, Smith was forced to work even harder for his 103 from 295 deliveries – the slowest century of his increasingly lustrous first-class career – against Western Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

As a consequence, the 30-year-old former Test skipper will devote the next few days of his typically exhaustive training regime to re-adjustment in the nets at Allan Border Field and the Gabba as he prepares to tackle Pakistan's highly rated battery of pace bowlers.

"I'm feeling good," Smith said of his current batting form at an Alinta Energy family event in Brisbane today.

"I probably just have to try and get used to the bounce of the wicket again at the Gabba.

"It's probably a little bit different to the last two Shield games I've played at Drummoyne and SCG, where they've been pretty benign wickets.

"I don’t think I had a slip in basically for the whole time I batted at Drummoyne and the SCG.

"I just found it hard scoring.

"There was no slip, there was a ring field, the square was pretty dead, and the wicket was pretty dead.

"There was a couple of times I hit and got it in the gap and thought 'that's runs", but it just died.

"So I couldn't get them away, but it's nice to spend some time in the middle all the same."

Image Id: 48444048508B4725812CFF9D06C453AE Image Caption: Smith was showing off his skills off the field in Brisbane on Sunday // Getty Images

Smith has been afforded opportunities to play on more traditional Australia Test pitches during the recent Gillette T20 Series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

And the right-hander showed in England, when he made the transition from 50-over white-ball cricket of the ICC World Cup to the Ashes which he dominated with an extraordinary 774 runs at an average of 110.57, he can quickly adapt to any format or conditions.

But he also revealed during the Ashes campaign that it was not until the eve of the first Test against England at Edgbaston that he felt his long-form batting rhythm and rituals "clicked", so he will be searching for that innate feeling at Australia's training sessions this week.

"For me, the next few days is about getting used to the bounce at the Gabba and practicing leaving (the ball) well, and just being patient again," Smith said today.

"I'm sure I'll get plenty of that work in, and be good to go on Thursday."

Given that Australia's attack for the first Test of the summer is likely to be the all-NSW line-up – Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon – that was also challenged by the Sydney pitches, it's not only the batters who will need to re-adjust to the Gabba's extra bounce.

With Pakistan boasting a lively and largely unseen (to their Australia opponents) pace attack, that is tipped to include exciting 16-year-old quick Naseem Shah, the opening Domain Test looms as a potential shoot-out between duelling fast bowlers.

Cummins said today that even though Pakistan's batters have warmed-up for the Gabba encounter with practice games on the typically fast pitches of Perth, where they played a day-night game against a strong Australia A team, they will face a sterner challenge when the Test match begins.

And while touring teams from the subcontinent have historically struggled against fast bowling on bouncy Australia tracks, the home team will deploy short-pitched bowling judiciously in order to maximise their chances of claiming their rivals' wickets.

"They (Pakistan) have obviously had a good week over in Perth, but it's pink ball that game, this game's a red ball," Cummins said today.

"We've got lots of guys coming off really good starts to the Shield season, guys that have played in the Ashes only six or seven weeks ago.

"And I think you saw in the T20s we didn’t overdo it with the short stuff.

"You feel like you can be a little bit fuller (in Australia) and it's the bounce that affects them – still hitting the top of off (stump), but from the pretty full length.

"Like any other team, I'm sure we'll use some bouncers but … if we're using a bouncer it's because we think it's a wicket-taking ball.

"I don’t think we'll overdo it.

"We might have our different plans to different batters but, like always, I try and use one bouncer an over. or once every couple of overs.

"It's going to be the full ball that gets the wickets."

Domain Test Series v Pakistan

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c), Cameron Bancroft, Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner

Pakistan squad: Azhar Ali (c), Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam, Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq, Imran Khan Snr, Iftikhar Ahmed, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Musa Khan, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Yasir Shah.

Warm-up match: Australia A v Pakistan, match drawn

Warm-up match: v Cricket Australia XI, November 15-16, WACA Ground

First Test: November 21-25, Gabba (Seven, Fox & Kayo)

Second Test: November 29 – December 3, Adelaide (d/n) (Seven, Fox & Kayo)