A few years ago, Steve Smith was difficult to define as a cricketer.
He was not Shane Warne, it was clear pretty early, and he was not a top-order batsman.
He seemed more a creation for the age – a Twenty20 cricketer who could do a little of this, a dash of that and field like a demon.
One, maybe all, of the many Twenty20 leagues around the world would present as a natural home and that would be that.
Now he is Australia’s captain-in-waiting.
Like nearly all Australian captains, he is a batsman-captain and probably the best batsman in their line-up.
His transformation has an innate Australian-ness, one that has defined some of their finest modern players.
It is not in the way he plays.
Smith is unique, a man playing an idiosyncratic, almost counter-intuitive game.
The intention behind almost every ball he faces is to play it to leg and it is not the intent that is astonishing as much as the execution.
In the semi-final against India, that exaggerated shuffle across off meant 77 of his 105 runs were made on the leg side; 39 of his 65 in the quarter-final against Pakistan were leg side.
It is a baffling trademark and though it may seem like it should bring bowlers reward, at present it seems impossible to bowl to him.
Suggestions of bowling full early, on his pads and hope he misses do not hold water as just nine of his 94 international dismissals have been leg-before.
Wider outside off is usually put through leg and, if a bowler strays too wide, Smith is not a muppet through the off side either.
Seaming conditions and good swing bowling may find a way, though that is true of probably all batsmen.
It is not the way Smith plays, though. Instead, that Australian-ness lies in his career arc and, in particular, his late flowering.
Think of players such as Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden and even Michael Clarke. Each one of them had to overcome various early hurdles before establishing themselves in the side.
For the longest time Waugh could not score a Test hundred and was seen as a pedestrian limited-overs player.
He ended up, for some time, the highest Test-hundred maker for Australia.
Ponting struggled in his early years to prove to the world that he was the talent nearly everyone in Australia who had seen him bat had raved about.
Hayden was worked out by pace bowling early in his career, taking six years to cement his place before eventually becoming Australia’s most successful opener. Clarke, another golden boy, was briefly dropped at the end of 2005.
That is why the tragedy of Phil Hughes feels even more heightened. For all the ups and downs of his career, the suspicion remained that one day he would return, and like a true Australian batsman, find a way to thrive.
Once identified, inevitably those prospects come good, which speaks both of the robustness of the domestic system and also of deeper, intangible aspect of the national character.
Many players around the world, like Smith, would have either been lost or resigned themselves to a lesser career in shorter formats.
There is no doubting now what Smith is: the next captain and the fulcrum of Australia’s batting order.
He started this tournament with two single-figure scores but has 95, 72, 65 and 105 since.
Therein another sign and a healthy one for Australia’s prospects on Sunday: the best come good when it matters most.
Australia will win if ...
• Mitchell Johnson builds on his semi-final Johnson had not had the kind of influence on this tournament he would have liked until he played India. A batting cameo then the big wickets of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma that effectively killed the chase. It was man-of-the-match stuff.
• It feels like a home game Sydney, at times, felt like a home game for India, so large was their support in the stadium. But the MCG should feel more like a regular home game and home is a place where Australia do not often lose.
• Both openers fire Aaron Finch and David Warner have 580 runs between them, but few together. Since the 57-run stand against England in the first game, the pair have put on 30, 14, 19, 30, 15 and 15. A substantial stand will have a big impact.
• James Faulkner continues to quietly do what he does best Faulkner has done little things here and there, which have added to bigger, better things. He has seven wickets and 44 runs from five games, both figures worth much more.
• They bat first OK, it did not work out in the group game against New Zealand but otherwise when Australia have batted first in this tournament, they have put the game beyond the opponent.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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