quincywagstaff
International Debutant
Don't really agree; with regards to India/Bangladesh 2017, there was 5 months or so between series so you'd think he'd have the chance to be mentally refreshed. Actually, if anything Smith's record shows that he's generally a slow starter in the first Test after a prolonged break and he benefits from series back-to-back regardless of the level of opposition and quality.This is just a theory but given how much of his success is based on mental strength I think he focuses so hard on the big series (eg. India 2017, Ashes 2017/18) and does so well, that when the next (less important) series rolls around (eg. BD 2017, SA 2018) he sort of phones it in.
With regards to his downturn in South Africa, I think that was driven by the off-field dramas that occurred constantly throughout the series which he let mentally get to him and resulted in the sorry end.