Steve Smith has returned to the game of cricket in the International arena after the conclusion of the ban period of 12 months. The flamboyant batsman straightaway delivered the goods in the practice games for the team in the recently concluded game against New Zealand side. Meanwhile, Justin Langer likens Steve Smith to Sachin Tendulkar.
David Warner and Steve Smith had a tough last 12 months before making their way into the Indian Premier League 2019. They both showcased their class in the middle for their respective teams. Meanwhile, they have a big task on their shoulders playing for Australia in the ICC World Cup 2019.
Steve Smith is in good shape:
Meanwhile, Justin Langer, who watched the last week game at Brisbane, quoted that he felt like Sachin Tendulkar was batting in the middle when Steve Smith played a wonderful shot against Nathan Coulter-Nile. Justin Langer wants to mention about the shape Smith maintained while playing the stroke.
“Last week in Brisbane, (Smith) batted beautifully, he played an unbelievable shot off Nathan Coulter-Nile there – it was like watching Sachin bat. He’s in pretty good shape I think,” cricket.com.au quoted Langer, as saying.
“(I) watched Steve Smith batting against New Zealand in those three practice games, he’s literally a master of the game, so it’s nice to have him back. He loves batting – he’s shadow batting on the sand, he’s shadow batting in the shower – I’m not joking,” he added.
We stick to play the Australian way of cricket – Justin Langer
Further, Langer quoted that Australia is going to play the game in the manner, which they used to do over the years. He doesn’t want his side to follow any other team when they already won 4 world cups of the previous 5 competitions.
“When everyone says we’ve got to start playing like England or start playing like New Zealand or start playing like India, no – we’ll keep playing like Australia because we’ve won four of the past five World Cups and that’s something to be proud of. The boys are aware of it and we know if we stick to the Australian way of playing great cricket… history has shown we’ll be pretty good,” Langer said.
Australia will play England and Sri Lanka on May 25 and 27 in the warm-up games before opening its World Cup campaign begins against Afghanistan on June 1 at the Bristol County Ground. They also announced a settled squad for the world cup/