Having learned to bat on hard, bouncy tracks in South Africa, a quirk of the calendar meant Smith was 36 Tests and more than four years into his England career before he played a Test on the subcontinent.
It became a perception that Smith struggled against high-class spin bowling, and in 1993, after averaging only 24 in India before being dismissed seven times in 10 innings by either Shane Warne or Tim May in the Ashes, that perception became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Smith had an operation after that summer on the nagging shoulder injury which destroyed his bullet-like throw from the boundary, but did not flourish under the man-management of Stewart’s replacement Keith Fletcher or new chairman of selectors Ray Illingworth.
Having been an automatic pick for years, Smith was suddenly under the spotlight, his confidence dented by Fletcher’s public criticism of his off-field activities, which included a company making cricket equipment.
South Africa by now had been readmitted to international cricket, and Smith was hugely disappointed to be dropped for the first home series against the country of his birth – and then omitted for the 1994-95 Ashes.
Injuries earned Smith a recall against West Indies in 1995 – which included a fractured cheekbone courtesy of Ian Bishop – and a tour ticket to South Africa that winter, but he continued to feel publicly undermined by Illingworth, who was now doubling up as coach after Fletcher’s sacking.
After they crashed out of a chaotic 1996 World Cup on the subcontinent, Smith’s England career was over at the age of 32.
