While there is still some time left before the Ashes gets underway, Australia superstar Steve Smith has decided to ramp up the mind games. The right-handed batsman has warmed up for the five-match series against England in style by scoring a sublime century against Team India in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship Final (WTC Final) at the Oval in London.
After Australia were reduced to 76 for 3 in the first innings, Steve Smith along with Travis Head batted their team to a strong position. The duo added 285 runs for the fourth wicket to help Australia finish their innings on with commanding total of 469 runs. Head scored 161 while Steve Smith scored 121 before being bowled by Shardul Thakur.
Steve Smith on Bazball:
After starring with the bat against India, Steve Smith could not stop himself from taking a dig at Bazball. England’s new playing style has taken the Test cricket by storm and the Ben Stokes-led side has performed exceedingly well since Brendon McCullum took charge of the team. England will be hoping that their new approach help them beat Australia for the first time since 2015.
Two of the last three Ashes series went in favour of Australia while the other one ended in a draw. And ahead of the highly-anticipated series, Steve Smith stated that it won’t be easy for England to play with the same attacking approach against Australia’s formidable attack.
“It’s a nice place to play. I think in terms of English wickets it’s probably as close to Australia as you get I suppose. I’ve enjoyed playing here and it was nice to score a few out here again,” said Steve Smith.
“I mean, I think it’d be difficult on this kind of wicket that’s up and down and seaming around – it’s not easy to defend, let alone come out and swing. So, yeah, I think I said it initially when Bazball started that I’m intrigued to see how it goes against our bowlers. I’ve said that all along.
“They’ve obviously done well against some other attacks, but they haven’t come up against us yet. So, we’ll see. It’s obviously been exciting to watch. I must say I’ve enjoyed watching the way they’ve played and the way that I guess they’ve turned things around in the last 12 months or so, but it’s yeah we’ll wait and see how it comes off against us,” he added.
Meanwhile, Australia have put themselves in the driver’s seat in the WTC final. After scoring 469 runs, the Pat Cummins-led had India reeling at 151 for 5 at the end of the second day.
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