Steve Smith has taken his batting to a different level altogether in the ongoing Ashes series, scoring three fabulous centuries to help Australia retain the urn for the very first time since 2001 on English soil.
Considering his prowess in the Ashes 2019 which saw him achieve the average of 64.95 after 123 innings, Smith is now being compared to legendary countryman Sir Don Bradman, who is widely deemed as the greatest Test batsman ever for his invincible Test average of 99.94.
Apart from his hundreds (144, 142 and 211), Smith has registered the scores of 92, 82 and 80. In six outings, the former Aussie skipper has aggregated 751 runs at an astonishing average of 125 and he is yet to bat in the second innings of the ongoing fifth Test at The Oval.
See More: List of records created by Steve Smith in the Oval Test in London
While English bowlers are running out of ideas to get Smith out, legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne recently shared a plan to keep the prolific batsman under check.
“I can’t remember an instance of a batsman being so dominant against a team – 751 runs in the series! England have simply had no answer for him. Whatever plans they have come up with, they either have not sustained them for long enough, could not execute them well enough, or Smith has just been too good,” Warne told Sky Sports.
“If I was England captain, I think the real key is trying to get him to hit through the covers – play away from his body. You need to bowl full at him, not too wide but wide enough that he is looking to hit the ball through the offside. Then mix it up with the odd short ball, with a leg slip. That’s what I’d be doing. I also don’t think there has been enough really good slower balls to Smith when he has first walked out to the middle,” he explained.
After his return to red-ball cricket following the ball-tampering ban, Smith leapfrogged Virat Kohli to the No. 1 spot in the ICC Test rankings for batsmen after just three innings. While his twin tons help Australia to win the Ashes opener at Edgbaston by 251 runs, his double ton secured a thumping 185-run victory for the visitors in Manchester.
