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Steve Smith fell shy of a century against England but continued his remarkable run-scoring record when he's Australia's Test captain.

Not everyone agrees with Steve Smith being captain, but the captaincy agrees with him.

Smith's 93 against England in the second Test in Adelaide continues his astonishing run-scoring when Australia's Test captain.

Smith took the captaincy for the Adelaide Test when skipper Pat Cummins was ruled out by a COVID scare.

The prolific batsman strode to the crease amid a slight chorus of jeers on Thursday night which were rapidly drowned out by rousing cheers from the majority at Adelaide Oval.

Then, he proceeded to do what he does best when Test skipper: make runs.

Smith has registered 15 of his 28 Test tons as captain.

And his average when captain, 70.79, surpasses his career average of 61.65.

His average as captain is the second-highest of any Test leader in history, behind only Sir Donald Bradman who averaged a mind-blowing 101.52 when leading Australia in 24 Tests.

Bradman scored 14 tons in his 38 innings as skipper while Smith's 15 centuries have come from 61 knocks.

In the overall scheme of things, Australia has eight batsmen in the top 20 of captains ranked by Test batting average.

Behind Bradman and Smith come Greg Chappell who averaged 55.38 as skipper, Bob Simpson (54.07), Steve Waugh (52.31), Michael Clarke (51.92), Ricky Ponting (51.51) and Allan Border (50.95).