The game of cricket is filled with uncertainty and that seems to be the case with modern-day Aussie great Steven Smith. Steven Smith who was once considered an heir to the all-time great Don Bradman has been in a tough patch lately. The technique that made Smith, the invincible batsman he once was now seems to be working against him. It is not just the case with Steven Smith. The other three apart from Joe Root which includes the likes of Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, and Steven Smith have been consistently failing and the situation just doesn't seem to improve.
Smith who was not picked by any IPL side this year around has been dipping in form with every single game he has played. When Australia toured Sri Lanka and Pakistan earlier this year, Smith looked uncomfortable in spinning conditions. This is the same Steven Smith who batted like a dream and encountered the genius of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja on turning Indian pitches back in 2016. Recently in a documentary, Ravi Ashwin opened up on how he had planned against Smith when the Indian team toured Australia for the 2021-22 Border Gavaskar Trophy Test matches. Ashwin in detail spoke about how he had figured out Smith's trigger movements.
Agreeing on the same thing with Ravi Ashwin, former Australia captain and the winner of three 50 over World Cups, Ricky Ponting has said that the opposition has somehow understood how Steven Smith plays his game, and hence that has impacted his performance a lot lately.
"The best way to describe it is, it (Smith's form) has been indifferent. For four or five years, he has been so incredibly consistent, making consistently high scores, making four, five, or six hundreds in a Test match calendar year and he hasn't been able to do that in the last couple of years. I have watched him quite closely, and I don't think there is anything technically there that has changed too much. Opposition teams maybe have finally started to work out the way they can slow him down from scoring quickly or have found some ways to attack him and get him out", said Pointing.
Smith who has 28 Test centuries to his name will travel to the Indian subcontinent later this year to play three-match T20I series and will be back again in 2023 to play 4 Test matches which will be a part of the famous Border-Gavaskar Test series.
(Inputs from PTI)
