Six months before the Ashes Down Under, Australia’s Steve Smith has sounded out a warning to England. Talking to BBC on the sidelines of The Hundred, he said. “Their batters are going to be challenged a little bit differently to the wickets they have had over in England for a while, which have looked pretty flat and good for batting.” For instance, in India’s tour to Australia last year, only three batsmen scored a hundred, whereas Shubman Gill alone registered three in the series against England.
This comes after swelling criticism that the pitches in the Brendon McCullum-Ben Stokes era had been bereft of typical English characteristics, like moisture-laden surfaces that propitiate swing in the first hour of each day. Surfaces have tended to last all five days with the surface not deteriorating dramatically. “But the wickets in Australia in the last three or four years have been very tricky for top order batters. It is going to be a good challenge for them,” Smith fired a salvo.
However, Australia batting is far from formidable. They have not yet pencilled in on an opening partner to Usman Khawaja, who himself is riding a trough. There is an uncertainty for the No 3 slot, where Cameron Green has not quite prospered, managing only one fifty-plus score in eight outings. “If you can get lateral movement at 83 to 85 (mph), I think you’ll bowl Australia out. I saw that in the World Test Championship final,” Michael Vaughan too observed recently.
“If we’re honest, there are only two or three players from both sides that can play forward defences properly. If you can challenge the forward defence with a bit of lateral movement, it’s no surprise you see clusters of wickets fall when England or Australia are batting when the ball is moving around a bit, because they play the expansive game and not many of them have the basics of playing forward defence and seeing the ball off. That’s the modern game,” he had said.
But Smith, who averages 56.01 in Tests against England, anticipates a wonderful series. “But it’s going to be a wonderful series. I have been watching the India and England series and there has been some great cricket played there, so I think the Ashes this year is going to be an absolute belter,” he said.
He has also noticed the different gears England had shown in the series against India. Rather than full-throttle Bazball, they have played according to the situation. “They have started to play a little bit differently in the last couple of weeks in terms of playing the situation, as opposed to going out and trying to be the entertainers that they said they wanted to be. They are actually trying to win the games now which is perhaps different to what was said in their comments previously,” he said.
Looking beyond, he expressed his desire to feature in the LA Olympics. “I decided to stop playing one-day cricket so I can play more franchises, with the aim to make the Olympic team. So to play more shorter-form tournaments around the world is only going to be beneficial. It has been a long run for me and I have been doing this a long time. I am still enjoying it and particularly the shorter formats, and want to keep putting my name out there,” he said.
