Smith has come a long way since his emotional press conference at Sydney International Airport in March 2018, when he admitted that his failures as captain were responsible for a cheating scandal that had engulfed his Australia team.<\/p>\n
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The Australian media pile on Smith and his team in the wake of \u2018Sandpaper-gate\u2019 (Peter Parks\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
His team-mate Cameron Bancroft had been caught by television cameras tampering with the ball during a Test match against South Africa. Bancroft was pictured using sandpaper to rough up one side of the ball in an illegal attempt to induce it to swing. A Cricket Australia investigation found that Smith and David Warner, the team\u2019s opening batter, had known about the plan and attempted to cover it up.<\/p>\n
The controversy sparked an existential crisis in Australia\u2019s national sport, even prompting the country\u2019s then-Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to express his outrage. Smith was sacked as captain, and he and Warner were banned for a year. Bancroft received a nine-month suspension.<\/p>\n
It was a nadir for Smith who, at the time of \u2018Sandpaper-gate\u2019, was the world\u2019s best batter and apparently untouchable as Australia\u2019s golden boy. Watching Smith convulsing with sobs in front of the media, the hand of his father, Peter, on his shoulder, many wondered if he would ever be quite the same player again.<\/p>\n
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Steve Smith is comforted by his father Peter at his Sydney press conference in 2018 (Brook Mitchell\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
It was in New York that Smith sought sanctuary during his exile from the sport. He was already a devotee of the city, having proposed to his then-fiancee Dani Willis at the top of the Rockefeller Center in 2017, but the anonymity of Manhattan life was a balm in a time of crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love this city,\u201d Smith says. \u201cWe first came here for a visit in 2016 and we were drawn to it. We come here to chill out and relax. There\u2019s so much to see and do. Yes, there are a lot of ex-pats, people from Australia, England and India who want to talk about cricket, but I\u2019m largely anonymous.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve realised as I\u2019ve got older how important the mental side of cricket is and it takes a lot out of you so you have to try and keep as much in the tank as you can for when the games come around. Hitting loads of balls adds to mental fatigue, so I\u2019m trying to strike a balance between the physical aspect with the mental side of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still do little bits of shadow batting here and there, but I\u2019m just as likely to get the golf clubs out now. Look, I still train exceptionally hard when I\u2019m around cricket and I still hit a lot of balls in practice but probably less than I did in the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in a place where I\u2019m able to focus for long periods during a five-Test series and that\u2019s something I\u2019ve learnt over a period of time and want to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is to the United States that Smith, now 36, looks when he considers the last great ambition of a stellar career that has seen him score more than 10,000 Test runs and recover his standing in Australia.<\/p>\n
Smith wants to play in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, the first time cricket will feature at the Games since 1900, when Great Britain defeated France. Given the LA 2028 format will be Twenty20 \u2014 where each team faces 20 six-ball overs \u2014 Smith, who will be 39 when that competition rolls around, is determined to play as much short-form cricket as he can, even retiring from 50-over internationals to free up time in his calendar.<\/p>\n
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Smith wants to play T20 cricket at the LA Olympics in 2028 (Peter Parks\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be cool and quite something to play in an Olympics,\u201d he says. \u201cI think the shortest format is the one I haven\u2019t quite conquered, so it\u2019s one I\u2019d like to improve in. I know the Australian coach Andrew McDonald laughs every time I score a run or two in the Big Bash (Australia\u2019s T20 competition) or other short-form tournaments. I send him texts saying, \u2018Did you see that, mate?\u2019 so hopefully I\u2019ll be sending plenty of texts and getting my name in that format.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no question over Smith\u2019s place in the Australian Test side and he will again be at the forefront of their attempt to retain the Ashes, the Test series with England that has been the marquee event for both countries since it was first contested in 1882.<\/p>\n
He has followed England\u2019s recent series against India closely from the States and talks with admiration over the achievement of Joe Root in eclipsing his countryman Ricky Ponting to become the second-highest run-scorer in Test history.<\/p>\n
Smith and Root were part of a so-called \u2018Fab Four\u2019, alongside India\u2019s Virat Kohli and New Zealand\u2019s Kane Williamson, who all emerged at the start of the last decade and established themselves as the sport\u2019s pre-eminent batters. Yet, while Root had, for a long time, been ranked well behind the other three, he is now the undisputed world No 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s batting on another level at the moment,\u201d says Smith. \u201cJoe looks in such a calm place when he\u2019s batting and he\u2019s making consistently big scores. For the last few years he\u2019s been beautiful to watch. His plans in all sorts of different conditions are spot on and he\u2019s scored big runs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The one blot on Root\u2019s record is his failure to make a Test century in Australia. Might Smith be reminding him of that when the pair meet later in August as opposing Hundred players, Smith for the Cardiff-based Welsh Fire and Root for Trent Rockets?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he needs reminding; he probably knows it,\u201d says Smith. \u201cI do think it will be challenging for the English batters in this Ashes because the wickets we\u2019ve played on in Australia over the last three or four years have been as challenging as anything I\u2019ve seen in my career. It will be tricky for them, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Smith has great respect for English rival Joe Root (Saeed Khan\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
At last Smith has stopped being Mr Nice Guy and is playing one of those psychological shots Australians specialise in when an Ashes series looms.<\/p>\n
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