NEWS
Follow UsThis has been a World Cup to forget for Steve Smith. Often hailed for his temperament to step up his game on big occasions, Smith has hardly turned up, amassing just 205 runs from eight games at a paltry average of 29.28. His strike rate has stayed below 90, ensuring slow progress in the middle overs for the five-time champions.
Sure enough, he has got a couple of good starts, but he will truly have a chance to make his presence count on Tuesday when Australia take on Afghanistan at the batting paradise of the Wankhede Stadium. Smith understands that he hasn’t been at his prolific best but is very happy about the contribution to various partnerships he has made along the way.
“It's been a little bit disappointing at times,” admitted Steve Smith ahead of the important encounter against Afghanistan in Mumbai. I've been in the middle of a few partnerships that have helped build a foundation for sure, but yeah, definitely would have liked to have gone on with it a little bit more.
“I've got in on some tricky surfaces, obviously the first one against India was a tricky one, the South Africa one where I felt like I was batting nicely - questionable sort of LBW and then got a good one early, I suppose against Sri Lanka. I was batting nicely against the Netherlands and then was batting reasonably the other day against England.
“So yeah, a couple of starts where I would have liked to have gone on with it a little bit more, but it wasn't to be. But I still feel like I'm hitting the ball quite well, so hopefully some runs at the back end of the tournament.”
Australia have two games pending in the ongoing World Cup - against Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Victories in those two games will ensure a qualification for the semi-finals and, potentially, a top-two finish as well, even though that seems like a long shot. However, Smith knows the kind of threat that Afghanistan and Bangladesh possess, especially with spinners, and hence, doesn’t want to take them lightly.
“Yeah, I think both sides have some quality spinners in particular, which I think the spinners have had pretty big impacts for most teams in those middle overs, and we knew that coming into the World Cup that those middle overs batting is going to be crucial to negate the damage as much as possible, build foundations for the back end and, yeah, it's going to be no different in the next couple of games against some quality spinners.
“You know, I don't want to sort of single out any sort of teams. I think I've played in some really good teams over the years. Obviously, the one in 2015 was a very good when we won the World Cup at home, and this is no different. It's a quality side. We've got some good people there, some good individuals, and we're working collectively as a team at the moment after the first two losses we had. So, we're in a good place, we're playing well, and hopefully, we can keep that up,” the former Australian skipper added.
Smith caused few murmurs in the camp when he admitted to be suffering from vertigo in the last couple of days. "Occasionally, I've had a few episodes, so I can tell you it's not the funnest space to be in, but yeah, I'll go out and have a hit and hopefully be okay and we'll see how we go."
"It's just been a bit annoying. So, hopefully I can get through training today and be all good. But, yeah, it's not a nice place to be."
Australia have had to deal with the absence of a few players in this tournament. Travis Head joined the team as late as their sixth game against New Zealand. Marcus Stoinis has missed a few games while Mitchell Marsh flew back to Australia for personal reasons but has joined the team before their clash against Afghanistan. Australia would not only expect to be fully fit but also get into some run-scoring grove before the business end of the World Cup.
