Wife catches Steve Smith in hilarious act in hotel room at 1am

Steve Smith is known as one of the most eccentric players in world cricket.

From his many superstitions and ticks to his wild leaves and calls of 'no', the stand-in Australian captain is one of the genuine cricket 'nuffies'.

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And wife Dani Willis has provided a first-hand insight into just how much Smith loves his cricket.

Willis took to social media on Sunday with a video she'd filmed of Smith checking out a new bat in their Adelaide hotel room at 1am.

In the video, Smith can be seen getting a feel for the new piece of willow, doing some of his customary 'shadow-batting' in front of the TV.

Bizarrely, Smith is completely blocking his wife's view of an episode of Seinfeld but doesn't appear any the wiser.

It's not the first time Willis has stitched up her husband either.

Willis posted a similar video of Smith shadow-batting in their hotel room in January before a Test against India.

The only difference was Smith was wearing his full cricket whites in the previous instance.

Justin Langer also recalled hearing Smith up all night shadow-batting during the 2019 Ashes series in England, while the man himself has admitted to practising his batting stance in the shower.

Steve Smith continues incredible record as Test captain

Not that Aussie fans are complaining.

Smith's 93 against England in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide continued his astonishing run-scoring record when captaining Australia.

Smith was handed the captaincy for the match in Adelaide after Pat Cummins was deemed a close contact of a Covid-19 case and forced to isolate.

The prolific batsman strode to the crease amid a slight chorus of jeers on Thursday night which were rapidly drowned out by rousing cheers from the majority at Adelaide Oval.

He then proceeded to do what he does best when Test skipper: make runs.

Smith has registered 15 of his 28 Test centuries as captain, while his incredible career average of 61.65 goes up to 70.79 when he is the skipper.

His average as captain is the second-highest of any Test leader in history, behind only Sir Donald Bradman who averaged a mind-blowing 101.52 when leading Australia in 24 Tests.

Bradman scored 14 tons in his 38 innings as skipper while Smith's 15 centuries have come from 61 knocks.

In the overall scheme of things, Australia has eight batsmen in the top 20 of captains ranked by Test batting average.

Behind Bradman and Smith come Greg Chappell who averaged 55.38 as skipper, Bob Simpson (54.07), Steve Waugh (52.31), Michael Clarke (51.92), Ricky Ponting (51.51) and Allan Border (50.95).

Smith will be eyeing off more runs on Sunday when he returns to the crease after opting not to enforce the follow-on.

England were bowled out for 236 on Saturday, with Australia taking a 282-run lead to stumps on day three with nine wickets in hand.

Mitchell Starc's 4-37 helped create an England capitulation, going from 2-150 in reply to Australia's 9-473 declared to 236 all out.

Australia then went to stumps at 1-45 after David Warner was the victim of a mid-wicket mix up on 13.

with AAP

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