Wielding his bat like a lightsaber, the 30-year-old's leaves were more exaggerated than usual. After a couple of bizarre deliveries facing Chris Woakes, he swished his bat down vertically and on one occasion he shuffled down the pitch, side-on, after watching a ball go past his off stump.
We're used to weirdness from Smith but this was extreme, even for him.
"He's upped the level of fidgetiness," former England captain David Gower said in commentary for Sky Sports.
A compilation of leaves, shown in the video player at the top of this article, certainly made for interesting viewing during the frustrating rain delay.
The Twittersphere lit up as cricket fans made light of Smith's unique approach.
We had plenty of chances to appreciate Smith's one-of-a-kind leaves because of England's new plan to the world's best batsman. After he cracked twin centuries in the first Test at Edgbaston, all the talk has been about how to get him out.
England tried everything in the series opener — bowling straight, bowling wide, stacking the leg side field and stacking the off side, but nothing worked as Smith marked his return to Test cricket from his year-long ball tampering ban in style.
There was a noticeable shift in tactics from the hosts in London as their fast bowlers consistently bowled outside off stump, trying to starve Smith of his favoured clips through the leg side.
According to CricViz, only six per cent of deliveries he faced on day three would have hit the stumps as the Poms persisted with a fifth-stump line to try and tempt him into playing a loose stroke.
Smith resisted, preferring to leave rather than slash outside off stump but the change in approach comes after England captain Joe Root admitted pre-match he wasn't patient enough with his plans for Australia's most important player in Birmingham.
"You're always looking at different ways how you can try and get someone out," Root said the day before the second Test started.
"I think maybe one thing that we could have done slightly better, me personally as captain, was stick to a plan for a little bit longer and give it a chance to work a little bit more.
"He did play well, but I think it was 18 times early on in that first innings he played and missed, so it could have been very different.
"In some ways, that's a sign that plans are working.
"We've just got to be a little bit more patient with it.
"I think it's very important that whatever way we decide to go, we're confident it's going to work and back our ability to execute it well."
