A novel control strategy is proposed to Improve the performance of switched reluctance motor (SRM) in this paper. This control scheme is a combination of proposed strategies including direct instantaneous torque control (DITC) and excitation angle control. Due to the proposed torque control strategy, the torque ripple problem of SRM is transformed into the problem of excitation angle control and the error control between instantaneous torque and reference torque. The current waveform of excitation phase of SRM is automatically improved by using optimized excitation angle, and not only smooth torque production but also the highest possible efficiency drive can be achieved without preliminary noting. Compared with the traditional DITC, the proposed DITC with adaptive excitation angle can achieve the widest operating range. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is evaluated by performing simulations on a 12/8 SRM.