IPL ‘spy’ mission

And while all eyes may be focussed on how the Australian players in this year’s Indian Premier League are welcomed by the natives following a fractious Border-Gavaskar series, the English should not be underestimated. 

Last year Ravichandran Ashwin famously bowled nothing but leg-spin to Steve Smith in the nets they shared with the Rising Pune Supergiant franchise. 

But with that series done and dusted, Smith may find a new IPL teammate a little too keen to learn the inside secrets from sharing a dressing room.

Ben Stokes was bought by RPS for a staggering AUD$2.8m (Rs 14 crore) this season and will share the dressing room with Ashes rivals Smith and Usman Khawaja plus Adam Zampa and Dan Christian. 

And with Smith currently ranked far and away the world’s best Test batsman, the opportunity for some potential inside track has not been lost on England’s brains trust. 

“Smith has become one of the best players in the world,” Root told England reporters last week. “In fact, he is ranked as the best player in the world and is just racking up the runs for fun.

“So the one thing Stokesy can do for us is make sure he finds a little weakness in Steve Smith’s armoury for us when we go down to Australia. If he can.” That last sentence could prove key – no side has been able to contain the Australia skipper since his breakthrough century in the fifth Test of the 2013 Ashes at The Oval. In the three years and seven months since that unbeaten 138, Smith has scored another 19 Test hundreds and averages more than 71. 

It is a prolific period of century making that is only bettered by the 21 Test tons Ricky Ponting scored between October 2002 and March 2006. The captain’s prolific scoring and his growing stature as a leader on and off the field prompted Australia head coach Darren Lehmann to suggest he was on the path to rival Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Ponting as great modern day captains.