Displeased with some of his current batting efforts, 2015's highest Test run scorer Steve Smith has poured over videos of his Bradman-esque efforts of the year before in a bid to iron out kinks in his technique.
It is the mark of the man who has quickly risen to be recognised as the world's premier Test batsman that the Australian skipper is never 100 per cent happy with his performances.
Smith finished off last year with 1474 runs, at an average of 73.70 across 13 Tests, as the leading scorer in the longest form of the game. Joe Root was second with 1385 runs at 60.21 from 14 Tests, with Alastair Cook third after notching up 1364 runs from 14 Tests at 54.46.
However, the 26-year-old has revealed that he spent time before the MCG Test looking at footage of his batting from his stunning 2014, when he hit 1146 runs in nine Tests at 81.85, because he was unhappy with his batting.
"I went back and looked at a bit of footage before the Melbourne Test and noticed my bat face was a little bit closed," Smith said ahead of the third Test against the West Indies at the SCG starting on Sunday.
"I was looking at footage from last summer actually where I was scoring a lot of runs and I think last week I got my bat face back to where I wanted it to be and everything felt really good.
"Hopefully I can score a few more this week."
Smith has managed scores of 48, 1, 27, 138, 53, 14 against New Zealand earlier this summer and 10 and 134no and 70no against West Indies.
"I felt pretty good last week. it was nice to just spend a bit of time in the middle again," Smith said.
"All of my movements and my swing and everything were back in sync."
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