Tinkering, struggling Smith still finds a way

At some point during the broadcast of Day 2 at Brisbane, they showed images of how Steve Smith's setup has changed for every Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy series.

- Ashish Magotra

At Perth, he covered his stumps. At Adelaide, he took a legstump guard and here at the Gabba, his stance was open. He was changing his trigger movement too.

Many equated these changes to signs of a struggle. A genius, on his way down, fighting to survive. The Sydney Morning Herald said, 'Smith's glory days are gone'; former Australia opener Simon Katich said, 'History suggests he won't be back to his best'; others suggested that his great strength (whipping the ball from offstump) had become his big weakness.

The 36-year-old made 110 during the second Test at Lord's in June last year, but had not reached triple figures in 24 innings since. He was Australia's greatest since Don Bradman, but his time was up.

And for much of Sunday, all these dire predictions seemed spot on. He was playing and missing, he was getting hit on the body, the shots weren't flowing and neither were the runs. But he didn't give it away. Genius, after all, is perseverance in disguise.