Smith not yet sold on stem guards despite fears

Steve Smith will battle a natural aversion to wearing protective stem guards on his batting helmet when he returns to competitive cricket this week, after admitting to holding grave fears for his wellbeing immediately after being struck on the neck at Lord's.

Smith will play his first game since suffering delayed concussion from a blow to the neck 10 days ago when Australia begin their tour game against Derbyshire in Derby on Thursday.

In his first media interview since suffering the injury, which forced him to retire hurt and then withdraw from the second Test at Lord's on its final day, Smith described the symptoms he began to exhibit hours after being hit by England fast bowler, Jofra Archer.

The 30-year-old also revealed that in the immediate aftermath of that blow to the unprotected left side of his neck, as he lay stunned and panicked on the pitch, his first thought was of his close friend and former teammate, Phillip Hughes.

The fatal injury that Hughes sustained during a Sheffield Shield match at the Sydney Cricket Ground in November 2014 was the result of being struck directly on the neck while batting.

"I had a few things running through my head, particularly where I got hit," Smith said prior to the Australia men's team travelling from Leeds to Derby for this week's three-day tour game.

"Just a bit of past came up, if you know what I mean, from a few years ago.

"That was probably the first thing I thought about, then I was like 'I'm okay here', and I was all right.

"I was a little bit sad, but I was all right mentally for the rest of that afternoon.

"I felt pretty good, passed all my tests and was able to go and bat and then it wasn't until later that evening that it hit me.

"When the doc (Bupa Support Staff team doctor Richard Saw) asked me what did it feel like, I said it felt like I had six beers last night and felt a little bit under the weather - without the six beers, unfortunately.

"That was the sort of feeling I got, that groggy feeling and that stuck around for a couple of days.

"Not a nice place to be in, but these things happen and unfortunately I missed what was a pretty amazing Test match (at Headingley)."

Smith admitted he struggled to watch the final hour of that third Test at Headingley as Ben Stokes single-handedly lifted England to a one-wicket win.

However, that unease was caused by the helplessness he felt at being unable to help out as Australia's grip on the game slipped away, rather than any lingering symptoms of the delayed concussion he had suffered.

Smith had passed all the required medical protocols and stepped up his training regime during the final days of the match, and barring any unforeseen events will resume his place in Australia's starting XI for the fourth Test that begins at Old Trafford in Manchester on September 4.

"I'm feeling pretty good," Smith said on Tuesday.

"It was a bit of a slow process, you've got to tick off a few different boxes, so I had to get through a brisk walk on the first morning of the (Headingley) game.

"Then I did some running on the treadmill at about eleven and a half kilometres per hour for four minutes, and was a little bit puffed after that.

"Then I did it the next day and was okay, so I progressed into some high-speed running and faced a few of the flickers (side-arm throwing devices used by batting coaches), and then faced bowlers.

"So I've ticked all the boxes now, I feel good and I'm ready to play."

Australia's sole training session ahead of the Derby game on Wednesday morning (UK time) represents the first chance Smith will have to face bowling at speeds comparable to Archer, with Mitchell Starc also pushing to regain his place for the Old Trafford Test.

Prior to play beginning on the epic final day in Leeds, Smith batted in the nets against seamers Michael Neser and Mitchell Marsh and didn't feel hurried in his stroke-play against that pair.

What did make Smith feel uncomfortable was the addition of clip-on neck guards to the base of his protective batting helmet, a measure that he has eschewed since it became available several years ago because of the impact it has on his anxiety levels.

He finds the lightweight guards disconcerting to wear, but has indicated he's likely to trial the attachment this week with a view to using them in the subsequent Test if he can become sufficiently used to them.

"I've tried them before, and I tried them the other day when I was batting and I reckon my heart rate went up about thirty or forty (beats per minute) straight away," Smith said.

"I just feel claustrophobic.

"I compare it to being stuck in an MRI scan machine.

"But I think at some point they're probably going to become mandatory, so I'm going to have to get used to them.

"And I'm sure the more I wear them, the more I practice with them, my heart rate will come down and everything will be okay.

"Had I been wearing a stem guard in the (Lord's) game, I'm not sure that would have made a difference, the way my head sort of went back and where it hit me.

"Of course, you always want to have as much protection as possible and for me now it's about trying to get used to it in the nets."

A key reason as to why he finds the small, plastic stem guards such an encumbrance is the importance he places on how he 'feels' when at the crease.

Among the many idiosyncrasies to which Smith happily admits are taping over his shoe laces so he can't see them when he looks down, and constantly looking for (and then forgetting) the method by which the bat fits most comfortably in his unusual grip.

Consequently, when something as seemingly minor as an addition to the back of his helmet forces him outside of his established patterns, he finds it severely disrupts the rhythm and familiarity of his strict routines.

Having rediscovered that 'happy place' during the first Test at Edgbaston (where he scored centuries in both innings) and prior to being hit at Lord's (where he made 92 before being substituted out of the game), he is anxious to avoid any contingencies that might prevent him returning there.

"I've said this a few times, but I actually forget how I hold the bat so I try and find that," Smith said of his meticulous and voluminous training habits.

"Sometimes it takes me ten balls, sometimes I go in (the nets) straight away and it's fine, sometimes it takes me a couple of hundred balls.

"But when I get that feel, it's a look thing for me – when it (the bat) looks right behind my foot, that's when I know I'm good to go.

"Edgbaston was just first game back (after a 12-month suspension), fresh and I just wanted to bat, I didn't want to stop batting.

"At Lord's, I felt like probably more the first morning when I was doing all my eccentric stuff I was kind of in a good place then and maybe not as good a place mentally the next day.

"But all my movement patterns and the way I feel was really good, so I'm comfortable with that.

"Hopefully I can ramp up my training over the next few days and get in a position where I'm comfortable again, and can go out and score some big runs."

2019 Qantas Ashes Tour of England

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c), Cameron Bancroft, Pat Cummins, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner.

England squad: Joe Root (c), Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jack Leach, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes (vc), Chris Woakes.

First Test: Australia beat England by 251 runs at Edgbaston

Second Test: Match drawn at Lord's

Third Test: England defeat Australia by one wicket at Headingley

Tour match: Australians v Derbyshire, August 29-31

Fourth Test: September 4-8, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: September 12-16, The Oval