In home conditions (in Smith’s case all conditions) the batting was largely dependent on Smith, Marnus and Warner. And they did the heavy lifting.
Here some stats to chew on.
Smith in his last 43 innings at home as scored 3 hundreds (more ducks in fact 4) (14.33 per innings). Prior to this sustained period of lack of centuries, Smith had scored 13 hundreds in 50 innings (3.84 per innings.
Marnus in his first 31 innings at home had 9 hundreds (3.44 per innings). He’s now gone 18 innings without a century at home.
Warner in his first 75 innings at home scored 18 hundreds (4.16 per innings). His final 26 innings yielded 2 hundreds.
With such a drop off from the three best players in the side (in Smith’s case, the best player of his generation) is it any surprise how the batting is struggling now?
This likes of Khawaja and Head are fine players, but are not as prolific century scorers usually averaging around 9-10 innings per century, so they can’t fill the void.
As for Marsh, Green and Carey - not even worth mentioning.
That’s the crux of this issue and there’s no one Shield cricket that is going to score Test centuries at an average of 1 every 5-6 innings…
Bancroft, Renshaw and Harris are often citied, they average roughly 10 innings per century at domestic level.
The cupboard is empty…