Smith worried ahead of Ashes
MUMBAI: Australia captain Steve Smith may have heaved a sigh of relief after his side managed to win the second and final Test against Bangladesh following an embarrassing defeat in the opening match, but he has a lot to worry about heading into the Ashes 2017-18.
The biggest series for Smith and co. is not far away with the first Test of the Ashes 2017-18 starting November 23 at The Gabba in Brisbane, and all focus shifts to the home series in which the hosts are expected to regain the Urn.
However, a fact that puts England in an advantageous position already is Australia’s frail batting, despite Smith notching up one of the highest rating points ever in ICC Rankings and his deputy David Warner producing two of the finest knocks of his Test career, in Bangladesh.
The Australian team has suffered batting collapse in 15 times in their last 14 Tests — a fact which has put Smith under tremendous pressure already.
“We’ve had 15 collapses in our last 14 games our analyst told me and that’s not good enough for an Australian team. That’s something we really need to work on and rectify that in the next series, the Ashes,” Smith was quoted by The Daily Telegraph.
“Losing seven or eight for a 100 or a bit more, that’s a pretty reasonable collapse and if you do that on regular occurrences, you’re not going to win a lot of cricket games. It’s something we need to work on. I’d say 95 per cent of batting is mental and decision making and unfortunately we’ve been making the wrong decisions and getting ourselves in some trouble,” he added.
Smith said, “I don’t think it’s technical. Guys just have to make better decisions consistently and hopefully be able to build some partnerships in the middle.”
While the top and the middle order look settled for Australia with the youngsters such as Matthew Renshaw and Peter Handscomb finding their feet quickly, the position of their wicketkeeper Matthew Wade is in a lot of trouble after a string of batting failures, and that of an allrounder.
Australia played Hilton Cartwright in the second Test at Chittagong, without much success.
Glenn Maxwell has been around in the middle-order in the Test series in India and Bangladesh, but his ability to chip in as an additional spinner is a factor which can be of consideration mostly when Australia are playing in the Indian subcontinent.
Talking about Wade’s position, Smith said, “I think Matty knows (this) himself … he came out to a few of the guys the other day and said he needed more runs. He’s honest about that. We’ve got the one-dayers (in India) and then he’ll go back and play Shield cricket and hopefully get a few big scores.” MUMBAI: The Australian players, in two batches, have reached Chennai ahead of their limitedovers series against India starting September 17. Australia will take on India in a five-match ODI and a three-match T20I series.
The first batch of players comprising limited-overs specialists Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Travis Head, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson, James Faulkner, and Nathan Coulter-Nile reached Chennai on Friday evening, according to cricket.com.au.
The second batch comprised Steve Smith, David Warner, Glenn Maxwell, Ashton Agar, Matthew Wade, Pat Cummins and Hilton Cartwright --- arrived on Saturday from Bangladesh.
Australia will start training on Sunday and will play a warm-up on September 12 ahead of the ODI series. Gurkeerat Singh Mann will lead the Board President’s XI in the only warm-up match.