With the Ashes a few months away, Australia ‘s Steve Smith opened up about facing England and especially Joe Root who had a decent series against India in the recent Anderson Tendulkar trophy. The England player scored 534 runs in five Tests, including 3 centuries. However, Root has yet to notch up a century in Australia having played played 27 innings Down Under, averaging 35.68 and with a highest score of 89.
“In the last two years, he has been incredible. His ability to make big scores- to go from 50 to a hundred- which was one thing he, you know, he got caught in that 50 to 100 spot for quite a while. Now, he’s just making it count and going on and making huge scores. He, hasn’t scored a 100 in Australia, that’s being talked about quite a lot. I am sure that is something that he wants to tick off his bucket list,” Smith said to Sky Sports Cricket
“Like I said, it’ll be tricky for batting, tricky for top order batters so from an Australian point of view, hopefully he does not get a 100 this time but I know he’ll be working hard for it, that’s for sure,” he added.
Ponting on Root
A few days ago, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting says he saw Joe Root’s lack of a Test century from three tours to Australia as an anomaly.
“What he’s done the past five years is extraordinary. Look at the numbers: he’s got 13,500 runs. I rank players on how long they can stay at the top of their powers. You can be a great player for 30 to 40 games but can you do it for 150 games? Joe probably wasn’t a great player for his first 100 games — he had 17 hundreds in 97 Tests — but he’s turned into a great player. He has got 21 hundreds in his past 60 games,” Ponting had said to The Times.
“Steve Smith found ways to minimise risks and that’s what Joe has done. The best players are the best problem-solvers. They can do it before a series, they can do it halfway through an innings. They work out how to combat ways that certain players are going to try to get them out,” he added.
