Skipper leads by example

AUSTRALIAN captain Steve Smith has implored his batsmen to leave “egos” at the door in Bangladesh.

If one more run-scorer had stood up alongside the skipper in India earlier this year, Australia would have likely made history and won that series.

Now the acid test has arrived for the top order to turn subcontinental experience into big hundreds, and Smith’s mantra to self, and advice to comrades, leading into Sunday’s first Test in Dhaka is be prepared to get down and dirty in the Bangladeshi dustbowls.

For the captain, it has always been a matter of how he scores, rather than how he looks.

Never one to defer much to the stylistic part of the game, he finds a way.

In India that guts and determination netted him a record three centuries at an average of 71 to earn a place in the record books as one of the finest tourists to India.

He has called on teammates to follow his lead.

“You need to take your ego out of play as much as possible,” he said.

“That’s the most important thing from my aspect and something I think I did well in India.

“I just took my ego out of play and wasn’t afraid to just let balls go past my bat con- sistently with the ball spinning away in particular.

“Just take your ego out of play and try to bat for long periods. (If you do) you will get your balls to score off.”

Australia has been putting its selfless approach into practice at training, with batsmen shedding their front pads at training.

Mistakes result in the ball crashing into their shinbone, and it is this Rocky-like attitude to batting that Australia must take out to the middle.

In India, Glenn Maxwell was the only batsman other than Smith to score a century, and he did not come in until the third Test.

Peter Handscomb, Matt Renshaw, David Warner, Matt Wade and Shaun Marsh made 50s, but failed to strip their game down enough to make the scores that win series.

Bangladesh is the ninthranked team in Test cricket, however, in its own conditions, this is a side that can rise to the occasion if opponents are less than 100 per cent.

Smith is hungry to take home another mountain of subcontinental runs, and believes his batsmen have been steeled by the relentless pressure they faced from Indian spin kings Ravi Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin.

“I thought I batted really well in India. My plans were simple and effective so I’d dare say they won’t change too much,” he said.