Stuart Broad has admitted he still does not know how to get Steve Smith out and says the Ashes will be a “long series” if England cannot dismiss the Australia batter early.
Smith, 36, is one of the best batters of the modern era and averages 56.01 in Ashes cricket with 12 hundreds.
The right-hander, who has played in every Ashes series since 2010-11, was the leading run-scorer in the 2017-18 and 2019 contests – with 687 and 774 runs respectively – when former bowler Broad was in England’s ranks.
“I remember he got this big two hundred [239 in Perth in 2017] and I did not miss the middle of his bat for three days,” Broad said on the For the Love of Cricket podcast.
“Every ball I tried to bowl just hit the middle of his bat.
“He’s got that mindset of ‘OK, this pitch suits me, and I’m not getting out’.”
Broad dismissed Smith 11 times in Tests – three more than any other bowler – but is no closer to settling on a weakness.
Smith’s career average of 56.02 rises to 59.70 when batting at home. Only the great Ricky Ponting (41) has scored more than Smith’s 36 Test centuries for Australia.
Broad said: “Obviously [Smith’s] technique’s changed throughout, but I still can’t sit here and go ‘well this is how you get him out’.
“That’s an unbelievable strength of his. He’s incredibly difficult to bowl at. Sometimes you don’t feel like you’ve bowled a bad ball and it still goes for four.”
Smith’s form dipped slightly between June 2023 and December 2024 when he went 23 innings without a Test hundred, but he made two against India last winter and hit 141 and 131 against Sri Lanka at the start of 2025.
After a two-month break, he began his build-up to this year’s Ashes in late October and scored 118 in his first innings.
“To win the series, we have to keep him [his average] to under 50, don’t we?” Broad said.
“He’s gonna score a hundred, it’s what he does.
“[If] he averages 40, that’s at least 15 under his career average, so you’re doing brilliantly. I think you have to get him early.
“If England aren’t celebrating in his first 40 runs, it’s going to be a long series.”
England have had various plans to counter Smith’s unconventional technique over 14 years of Ashes series.
Broad spoke of developing a new outswinger for Smith before the 2023 series while England have targeted Smith’s pads, bowled wide of off stump and even bowled for catches at leg gully in 2019 – a series Smith began with twin hundreds at Edgbaston.
“I remember Jason Roy was fielding there at leg gully, and he was diving left and right for the first 30 balls, just missing him there, just missing him there,” Broad said.
“Smith got away, got two hundreds in that game, unbelievable innings.”
Broad added: “I remember sitting in a bowlers’ meeting about Steve Smith in 2017-18 and they were like ‘oh, you could try and attack his stumps early’.
“‘Oh yeah, can we just click on how many times he’s been bowled in Australia in the last five years?’ Once.”
The upcoming series, which begins in Perth on Friday (02:30 GMT), looks set to see Smith face Jofra Archer for the first time in Tests since 2019, when he was famously unsettled and struck by a bouncer during the England paceman’s fierce spell at Lord’s.
Smith has always been keen to point out Archer did not dismiss him in that Test – he had to retire hurt and was out lbw to Chris Woakes on his return – though Archer did have the right-hander caught on the pull in a one-day international in 2024.
“Can Jofra Archer be that guy?” Broad said. “Nicking him off from back of a length, just chasing it.
“Because Jofra Archer has that angle of nipping back towards the stumps, can he nip one away? Smith’s looking for the nip-backer.”
