Test captaincy hasn’t cramped Steve Smith’s style. If anything, it’s enhanced his career-best form.

Smith extended his dream start as Australia’s 45th Test captain at the MCG on Saturday, falling eight runs short of a maiden double century.

Smith, who earned man-of-the-match honours at the Gabba for scoring 133 in his captaincy debut, again steadied Australia’s cause in the absence of hamstrung skipper Michael Clarke.

Smith steered Australia from 3-115 to a total of 530, forming key partnerships with Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris.

No other Australian has scored a century in their first two Tests as captain.

“It (captaincy) hasn’t had any negative impact on his batting,” Clarke said of Smith’s promotion, while calling the game for the Nine Network.

“Steve’s loving this extra responsibility, he’s batting beautifully here and it’s been an amazing year for him.”

Smith’s numbers for the calendar year are outstanding – 1012 runs at an average of 84.33.

His record against India in the four-Test series is even more staggering – 567 runs at 189.

“Everything’s working for me at the moment,” he said.

“Not really. I feel pretty good,” he added, when asked of any added pressure the captaincy had created.

Smith became the 13th Australian to score centuries in three consecutive Tests on Saturday morning, clipping a ball off his pads to fine leg for a boundary.

The right-hander removed his helmet and pointed to the sky with his bat in memory of Phillip Hughes, who died last month after being struck by a bouncer.

Ravichandran Ashwin conceded India ran out of ideas for dismissing a man who never looked like getting out.

“When anybody is in such form, you hope you have a bit of luck and get them out early,” Ashwin said.

“He’s been batting really well.”

Smith was denied a double hundred when he attempted a creative stroke to a good ball from Umesh Yadav.

But there were no regrets for a leader hell bent on piling on runs before tea.

“I got out to a pretty silly shot. They had every man on the fence so I was just trying to find a boundary,” Smith said.