When Steve Smith started opening up his stance, many saw it as a technical flaw, which they felt would eventually be exposed by opposition bowlers at the highest level. But what followed, made everyone stand-up and applaud as he proved each one of them wrong, scoring plenty of runs, especially in Test match cricket across all conditions. 

It is this aspect of Smith's batting that remains its distinct feature. The Aussie right-hander cuts down number of ways in which the bowler could possibly dismiss him and hits the ball in usual areas, playing around with the field. 

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"It depends on who’s bowling, how is the wicket playing, how I gonna score and stuff like that or how people are trying to get me out, probably that determines how open I am or otherwise how closed I am," Smith told New Zealand spinner Ish Sodhi in a podcast organised by inaugural IPL champions Rajasthan Royals. 

"But my general stance where my back foot is going to almost off stump, or may be even outside at stages, I know that anything outside my eyeline isn’t hitting the stumps," he said.

Over the years, Smith has developed a clearer understanding of his unorthodoxy. "For me, you shouldn’t get out if the ball is not hitting the stumps, so that is just a trick from me when I first started doing it, just limiting the ways I get out," he said. 

"Sometimes, I get trapped in front but I’m okay with that at stages, knowing that if it is outside my eyeline, I don’t need to try and play the ball, I can just leave that."

International and domestic cricket remains suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Smith, who just loves batting, will be hoping for the world to soon overcome the deadly outbreak so that the on-field play resumes and he can restart dominating opposition attacks. 

He has been brilliant since his comeback to the highest level last year following ban for proven involvement in the 2018 Cape Town ball-tampering incident. 

He played a crucial role in Australia's charge to the 50-over World Cup semi-final and then helped his country retain the Ashes in UK for the very first time since 2001. Smith scored 774 runs at an average of 110.57 in four Tests of the series, including two hundreds and an epic double ton. 

(Inputs from PTI)