Steve Smith’s transformation from a leg-spinner to batting colossal has been one of the greatest stories in modern-day cricket.

On Thursday in the Caribbean Premier League, the banned Australia star showed that he can still put his bowling to good effect by picking up two wickets in Barbados Tridents’ two-run win over Jamaica Tallawahs.

The 29-year-old starred with an all-round display, scoring a 44-ball 63 before returning with figures of 2-19 from three overs.

The Aussie removed both Jamaica openers Johnson Charles and Glenn Phillips in the space of five deliveries with his leg spin in a man-of-the-match performance at Florida.

Following his side’s thrilling win, Smith attributed his bowling display to remodeling his action on former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi.

“I’ve changed a few things – I’m trying to base my action off Shahid Afridi actually, and try and bowl quite fast and into the wicket,” Smith said.

“There wasn’t a heap of bounce on this wicket so you could almost hit that back-of-a-length and make them go across the line.

“Fortunately, it worked tonight.”

Afridi picked up 541 international wickets over the course of his career.

Afridi picked up 541 wickets across all formats in an international career spanning more than two decades. When asked why he has chosen the Peshawar man’s action out of all people, Smith spoke about his longevity.

“Why not? The bloke’s (Afridi) played for a long time. He’s been a terrific leg-spinner,” he replied.

“As I’m getting a bit older I can’t walk in anymore and bowl as fast as I need to, so I’ve got a bit more momentum through my run-up so I can get the ball down a bit quicker, otherwise it just goes miles.

“So yeah, change it up and it works.”

So far in his career, Smith has picked up 61 international wickets in all three formats in 202 appearances. The former Australia skipper is currently serving a one-year ban from international cricket handed to him by Cricket Australia for his role in the ball-tampering saga.