Birmingham: There are many things being said about Steve Smith. World’s best batsman, best since Bradman. Justin Langer has another way of putting it.

“You throw to him in the nets and you literally feel like you can’t get him out and there’s no batsman like that,” the Australia coach said in the wake of Smith’s twin tons in Australia’s 251-run triumph over England in the first Ashes Test.

“And you just end up throwing a million balls and you are just lost for answers. [England] had some interesting tactics for him ... they had the really short point which I had never seen before, they obviously had a tactic they prepared and [England coach] Trevor Bayliss has seen a lot of Steve Smith since he was a kid, they would have studied him closely. But he just has a knack ... he’s the best problem solver in the game.”

The irony is that while Smith, according to Langer, is a problem solver extraordinaire, England have a very big problem on their hands in working out how to negate his influence in this series. The former captain was so immense at Edgbaston that he established himself immediately as the central figure in the series.