Australia coach backs under-fire Smith as opener for series against India
Rubbing salt to the injury, the 34-year-old Smith could only manage 51 runs from four knocks during the recently-completed 2-0 series victory over New Zealand.
Steve Smith has finally responded to Pakistani spinner Yasir Shah’s seven-fingered salute celebration. Shah celebrated by showing seven fingers, indicating the number of times he dismissed the batsman, after sending him to pavilion for just four runs in the first Test between Australia and Pakistan.
Speaking to the official website of the Cricket Australia (CA), Smith said, “It gave me a bit more motivation next game to not get out to him. I’ll be a little bit more disciplined against him.”
The world number one Test batsman added that he was not worried for being the victim of a particular bowler for so many times. He said that the dismissal at the Gabba last week came when he was trying to play a “funky” shot to lift the run-rate for his team.
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“It was interesting. A few of the times he’s got me out, I’ve been on a few runs and been slogging. There’s been a couple of second innings ones where I was playing some funky shots. So I’m not too worried,” Smith said.
“I thought he bowled really well at the Gabba, got some good drift and a little bit of a spin on a wicket that wasn’t spinning that much. He bowled well and we’re going have to play him well this game,” he added.
The 30-year-old also clarified that the coach Justin Langer had given him the license to have a go at the bowlers since Australia were anyway cruising towards a big total when he came in to bat at 351/2.
He explained, “The situation we were at was a pretty good one, the boys batted beautifully up the top. I actually spoke to JL in the morning (and asked) ‘how should I approach this today?’. He (said) ‘do what you want to do’. I thought about being quite aggressive and it didn’t work.”
Shah has been a nightmare for him ever since he began his ascent towards becoming one of the best Test batsmen of current times. The Pakistani, who made his debut in the 2014 series against Australia, had dismissed Smith three times.
In 2016, the leggie added three more dismissals of the Aussie sensation on Pakistan’s tour of the country down under.
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