Talking about Ben Stokes, Australian maestro Steve Smith said that the intent of the England all-rounder of wanting to be in the tough situations and create an impact is what makes him different from others.
Smith was talking ahead of Australia’s limited-overs tour to England and hoped that Stokes doesn’t continue his red-hot form against them. However, Smith jokingly said that he wouldn’t mind if Stokes gets his A-game back during the IPL later this year when both of them will share the Rajasthan Royals dressing room.
“It will be great to be able to play some competitive cricket against a quality England side which has few of my Royals teammates (Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler).
“Hope they don’t score too many runs or take too many wickets and can save that for the IPL,” Smith told PTI during the screening three-part docu-series, Inside Story: A Season with Rajasthan Royals.
The series has been produced by Red Bull Media House and would be aired on Jio TV and Jio Cinemas.
Smith, the number on Test batsman, could not stop heaping praise on Stokes who is in the middle of a dream run at the moment. With his all-round performance in all the three departments, Stokes has been wreaking havoc in across formats since the ICC World Cup last year.
“I have seen Stokes go from strength to strength. He had an incredible World Cup and recently played in Test matches. He bowled beautifully and got some wickets as well,” Smith said.
“He is a player who wants to be involved whether he is batting, bowling or fielding. He wants to be in hotspots. You want these players in team as they want to deliver in tough situations.”
Australia will resume their international calendar with a white-ball series against England and Smith said that nothing better than getting to play some quality cricket after nearly seven months.
“It will be great being back to playing some cricket. We haven’t played a game since February and like most of the world, our country was also shutdown, had to find way to get through this Covid experience which has been incredibly different for everyone.”
With PTI inputs