Smith yearns to turn Asian tide

Steven Smith leans down the wicket to a Steve O'Keefe ball drifting towards leg stump. Australia's captain closes the face to whip through the leg side but does so too early, drawing an edge in the direction of slip. It is three days before the start of the first Test against Sri Lanka.

As O'Keefe celebrates his little victory in the Pallekele nets, Smith chides himself tersely. "That's shit batting," he blurts. Later, he runs past a Nathan Lyon delivery angled across him from round the wicket, and later still cops a blow to the inner thigh from a Mitchell Marsh effort ball that pops off the surface.

These moments are apt showings of Australia's vulnerability in subcontinental conditions; moments they must avoid to win this series, and next year's in India. Smith has preached adaptability since he was formally appointed captain after the loss of the Ashes in England last year. Now he and his team face the first real test of their resolve to do so. Save for a series win over lowly Bangladesh in 2006, Australia have won one of 15 Asian Tests since 2004.

"We'd like to turn that around," Smith said in Pallekele. "I think we've won one game out of our last 15 in the subcontinent. It's about making sure you have a plan from ball one as soon as you get out there and each individual is different. I've seen a lot of the guys practicing the sweep shot, guys coming down the wicket, batting deep in the crease and things like that. It's about making sure you're doing it from ball one and not waiting until you're 15 or 20, because you can make a mistake before that.

"So it's about doing it from ball one and making sure you have that plan and you're doing it the whole time. I think that's how you have to play in the subcontinent. You have to take different parts of the game, different tempos of the game along with you as well. There'll be times when they want to attack and you might get more scoring options and times when they want to be a bit more defensive. You have to be patient with that at the same time. The guys know what to expect, we've trained really hard being here the past two weeks and we're ready to go."

It cannot be said that the Australians are underprepared. They have been in Sri Lanka for two weeks, with some players adding further to their acclimatisation by spending time in Chennai beforehand. They have played two tour matches, an internal trial and a comprehensive win over a Sri Lankan invitational side. They have been actively assisted by the advice of Muttiah Muralitharan, to the evident chagrin of the hosts. They have a squad tailored to the conditions, with O'Keefe offering a style of bowling not dissimilar to that of Rangana Herath. And they are playing the first Test of the series at Pallekele, which will offer a more equable surface than the spinning top expected in Galle. All bodes well.

"I think he has always improved, each year he's played he has improved," Smith said of O'Keefe. "Looking back to the UAE tour [against Pakistan in 2014], we bowled first on both of those occasions and were behind the game quite often. It's always a different game when you get in front of the game and there's a bit of pressure on the batters to score runs and play with guys around the bat and those kinds of things.

"I guess we never really got in that kind of position so we never saw that side of Stephen. But I think he has progressed really well. He's probably bowling as well as I've seen him bowl. In the tour match he bowled beautifully. He bowled the same ball and some skidded on and some spun. Quite similar to Rangana Herath, the way he bowls in these conditions. So if he gets an opportunity, I'm sure he'll do well."

Another important role player will be Marsh, the allrounder who has made a promising start to his Test career without making the runs expected of a No. 6 batsman. Smith is hoping his top order can dig in for the long, substantial innings that can allow Marsh to give free rein to his expansive hitting power later on. Equally, he is looking forward to using Marsh's lively fast medium for impactful spells of the kind seen in the recent triangular series final against the West Indies in Barbados last month.

"He's a big strong lad and he plays best when he's looking to hit the ball," Smith said. "He gets himself in a little bit of trouble, as we've seen in one-day cricket, when he sort of just noodles them around. When he looks to hit the ball and he gets the man at long-off back and hit down the ground for one and have that intent to score, he's been pretty successful. So there's no reason why he can't do the same in Test cricket."

There is a second variable to Australia's fortunes over the next three Test matches, that of Sri Lanka's transitional team. While the conditions will pose challenges for Smith's men, he is also conscious of making sure the visitors assert themselves at the right times. As the world's No. 1 Test team, they have the capacity to dominate at times, provided they are the right ones.

"They are in a bit of a transition, as are we in a way," Smith said. "We've had a lot of retirements recently as well. They've lost a lot of runs in Mahela and Kumar, they were incredibly experienced players. Angelo [Mathews] is probably the only one now who has played over 50 Tests in their top six. They've got a pretty inexperienced line-up and we'll try to get on top of that as much as we can."

As for Smith's own batting, there is something to his style that appears suited to these conditions, as he showed with a series of useful scores on Australia's ignoble 2013 tour of India. By match eve he had ironed out those earlier kinks and misjudgments, nailing his drives, cuts and defensive dead bats with far greater surety than a couple days before.

"I enjoy playing cricket in the subcontinent it's always a great challenge," Smith said. "The ball generally does something quite regularly in the game, whether it's reverse swing or spin. It's a great challenge to try and bat for long periods and get big scores. I haven't got a hundred [here] yet so it would be nice to tick that off - this week would be good. It's going to be a tough series but we're all looking forward to it, and hopefully I can have some success along the way."