Steve Smith towers over Proteas: How England has been 'home away from home' for the Australian great

London : Over the years, Australian star batter Steve Smith has outclassed several greats of Test cricket. With his unorthodox stance, mannerisms on the pitch, top-class hand-eye coordination and strokeplay, he has motored miles away from many to become this generation's greatest Test batter and stands rivalled by barely a handful of stars.

While Smith has been a treat to watch at his home grounds, he has been just as great in England. At the stadiums where his biggest rivals have grown up and shaped their destinies as players, he finds himself at home like very few. His acquaintance with English conditions is such that he could very well be mistaken for an English player without the Aussie badge on his shirt and his massive status in the game.

In 22 Tests at England, Smith has scored 2,255 runs at an average of 55.00, with eight centuries and nine fifties. His best score is 215. Be it twin tons at Birmingham in 2019 or his two double tons in this country, Smith's playlist of England classics runs for hours.

What's astonishing is the fact that Smith has not only outscored several greats, but the whole South African squad travelling for the World Test Championship (WTC) final combined. Even though nine of 15 SA players travelling to UK have batted in English conditions, they still have not reached anywhere close to his numbers, putting forward a combined 771 runs.

Aiden Markram (two matches, three innings, 36 runs), skipper Temba Bavuma (four matches, eight innings, 257 runs, two fifties), Ryan Rickelton (one match, two innings, 19 runs), Kyle Verreyne, the wicketkeeper-batter (three matches, five innings, 61 runs), Wiaan Mulder (one match, two innings, 17 runs) and Marco Jansen (two matches, three innings, 82 runs) have not done much in English conditions as a group of recognized batters, scoring 472 runs across 23 innings with just two half-centuries.

Kagiso Rabada (six matches, 11 innings, 133 runs), Keshav Maharaj (seven matches, 13 innings, 162 runs) and Lungi Ngidi (two matches, three innings, four runs), have scored the remaining runs. Only a total of two half-centuries have come from current squad in England in a total of 50 innings.

To simply put it, the batting group at least has failed to make an impact in England, except for Bavuma.

Will this lack of runs come to bite Proteas again in the finals or will some of these players step up big time to make up for this massive gulf?