Steve Smith ruled out of Adelaide Oval match with vertigo
But there have been other occasions where Smith has struggled with this issue and continued to play, as he did when scoring a century against India at the SCG in 2020.
“I didn’t know I was going to play today,” Smith said at the time. “I thought I was going to have a hard time. It didn’t look good there for a while.”
“I had a really bad dose of dizziness this morning and was struggling until… I went down early to do a little run and a little bump.
“The doctor, I think he did six Epley maneuvers on me this morning and took the crystals out of my ears, and I struggled for a while.”
Much had changed since Sunday afternoon in Adelaide, when Smith completed his second net session in as many days and then joined his teammates for a round of golf on Adelaide’s special Kooyonga layout. Smith was in good spirits all day.
Contrary to some broadcast reports on Wednesday, at no stage did Smith suffer a blow to the head in the net or suffer any pain reminiscent of a concussion.
Steve Smith is with Jofra Archer in Brisbane.Credit: Getty Images
But on Monday afternoon, when Smith accompanied his teammates to the Adelaide Oval for the team’s main training session, he felt so ill that he spent the entire session indoors, neither fielding nor batting.
At the time, CA stated that Smith could still play. Correspondingly, Khawaja had the subdued air of someone who knew he was probably going to miss.
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But as Khawaja admitted when the team arrived in Adelaide, a lot can change in the week of a Test match.
“There’s a lot going on in a game, so don’t think too far ahead,” he said. “People can start thinking ahead, and I’m sure people out there are always thinking very far ahead, and I’ve done that in the past and it’s never worked.”
In addition to his dizziness problems, Smith took on a considerable emotional and mental load as captain in the first two Tests of the series, while Cummins recovered from his back problem.
The adrenaline pumping so vividly in the closing moments of the Gabba Test when Smith faced Archer was always likely to result in a significant fall.
Former Australian coach Justin Langer, who has occasionally suffered dizziness-related symptoms in the past, spoke with empathy for Smith.
“It’s a huge loss for many reasons,” Langer said on Seven. “There was such a build-up between Steve Smith and Jofra Archer, but it seems this dizziness has taken over him and it’s a terrible thing.
Steve Smith burst onto the scene at Lord’s after being dropped by Jofra Archer in 2019.Credit: Getty
“For those who experience it, it’s terrible. He’ll feel very bad, and the fact that he’s coming off the ground tells us that he’s really not okay.”
While it is too early to say that Smith’s absence will be a moment after Glenn McGrath rolled his ankle on a cricket ball at Edgbaston in 2005, the loss of batting prodigies is another major turning point in Australia’s Ashes story.
