Steve Smith scored 35 runs against South Africa in their first match of T20 World Cup.
Premier Australian batter Steve Smith said that his job is to revive the innings if the top order gets dismissed earlier in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
Australia opened their T20 World Cup campaign with a 5-wicket win against South Africa on Saturday (23rd October).
Chasing the low total of 119 runs, Australia stumbled in the start as they lost their top-three in quick succession of time. Steve Smith, who came to bat at no.4, stitched an important partnership with Glenn Maxwell and bailed his team out of the trouble.
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The right-handed batter played the perfect role of the anchor. Though he failed to take his home, he provided the platform for the other batters to play their shots from the ball one.
Steve Smith revealed that his job is different from what it used to be. He said that his role in the team is now to fix the innings if the top order fails but if they go well then he’ll slide down the order and make way for big hitters in the side.
"It's a little bit different to what I've played previously, but my job basically is to fix it if our top order doesn't come off, then if our top order do go well the likelihood is I'll slide slightly down the order and let our big strong boys go out and attack it. Think I've done it pretty well in the first couple of trial games and our first game," ESPNCricinfo quoted Steve Smith as saying.
Smith said the 'scrappy cricket' prevalent in the UAE so far has given a new look to T20 cricket. He added that the pitches have demanded adaptability from the batters which has kept the matches 'interesting'.
"Even throughout the IPL, there was a lot of really scrappy cricket, not huge scores, which made the games pretty interesting and quite close. Slightly different to a lot of T20 cricket, quite often it's flat wickets and big scores, so you have to change slight ways you play and adapt according to what's required on that surface. It's been interesting so far,” he said.
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Steve Smith said that batter needs to have the ability to get off strike rather than muscling the ball around. He pointed out the even powerful hitters have struggled to hit sixes and a batter should be smart about the way he bats and should have the ability to limit dot balls.
“Think you need the ability to get off strike, manipulate the ball to certain areas more than just the power. Some of these wickets even the powerful blokes have struggled to hit sixes so you need some smarts about you, playing the situation, and having the ability to limit dot balls," he said.
Australia will next take on Sri Lanka in their next match on 28th October.
(ANI inputs)