Smith’s vital problem sounds totally batty

CALL triple-zero and sound the alarm, the world’s best batsman has forgotten how to hold the bat.

Just 19 days out from the Ashes opener and Steve Smith admits the captain is as desperate for runs as the cavalcade of nervous candidates vying for the vacant No. 6 position.

Smith hasn’t made a century since the fourth Test in India earlier this year, but it’s not a lack of runs that’s concerning him.

Every now and then, Smith admits that he falls victim to an unthinkable scenario: perhaps Australia’s most lethal runmaker since Sir Donald Bradman forgets the most basic of fundamentals.

It sounds extreme, but the good news is it’s a problem he has successfully overcome more than once before.

“At times you go through patches where things don’t feel right. Believe it or not I actually forget how to hold the bat sometimes,” Smith said last week at his book launch.

“I come home and tell (partner) Dani I forgot how to hold it today.

“It’s a bit strange for some- one who is meant to be one of the better batters around the world.”

Smith confirmed on the eve of NSW’s Shield clash with Western Australia that unfortunately now is one of those personal troughs.

“I just need to figure out how to hold the bat again,” he said at a press conference.

“I haven’t felt great for a little while now and I just need to spend some time in the middle.

“I had a really good hit … I felt like I figured things out (in the nets) at the end so hopefully I can put that out into the middle.”

Smith has batted on up to half an hour after his NSW teammates the past two days — not that that’s unusual for Australia’s most fastidious figure at practice.

“I go through those challenges and have to overcome those things,” he has said.

“People say I go across my stumps a long way, ‘aren’t you just going to get out lbw?’ But I’ll cop that. If I get out lbw I am actually happy. If I get out nicking outside off stump I am disappointed in myself.”

The good news for Australia is David Warner and Usman Khawaja were the two most impressive batsmen in the opening round of Shield.

In a match where almost every player, including Smith perished, Warner was a rock.

Khawaja meanwhile, scored the only ton of the round — a beauty at the Gabba.