Australia captain Steve Smith, on Thursday, revealed some of the secrets behind his stupendous success, especially in Tests, and cited taking cues from Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Kane Williamson and their approach.
The Smith-Kohli rivalry has steadily gathered steam over the past year. The 2017 Border-Gavaskar series in India saw tempers boil over between India and Australia. On the sidelines of winning the Allan Border medal, Australia’s most prestigious individual honour, Smith said he tried to copy the Indian captain’s approach to spin.
Smith was seen crouching and using his bottom hand to caress the ball through the cover region against off-spinner Moeen Ali during the Ashes, “Little bit of Virat and the way he plays spin, his hands and the way he hits the ball through the off-side. Probably learnt a little bit out of that. I just try and learn,” Smith told cricket.com.au.
As for the South African batting maestro, Smith hailed his back-foot technique and leg-side play: “I’ve copied a bit of what AB de Villiers does. The way I go back and across to open myself up and set myself for the shots. More so when the ball is reversing.”
The no 1 ranked Test batsman said he was also inspired by New Zeaaland captain Williamson playing the ball late, trickling it down with ease to the third man region. “A few years ago I tried to bat like Kane Williamson and play the ball really late,” Smith added.
During the 2015 Test series in New Zealand, Smith opted for a bizarre field placement – keeping a man a few feet across the off-stump against pacers in an attempt to stop Williamson from running the ball to the third-man region. “I just try and learn, and these guys [Kohli, De Villiers and Williamson] are the best players in the world for a reason. So you try and get whatever you can out of them.”
Smith had a magnificent 2017 season, which kicked into gear during the India tour. The Sydney-born batsman slammed 499 runs, including three centuries, but could not stop his side from losing the series. England’s bowlers were brought to the knees during the Australian summer, bringing up 637 runs at a whopping average of 137.40. It was laced with three hundreds and two fifties.
When asked who he might be looking to impersonate in South Africa, Smith said:
“Just myself, I think.”
“But you never know. It might come in throughout certain games where I want to change something, or need to adapt to whatever’s in front of me.”
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