Supporting Steve Smith, Australia opener David Warned said that once in a while, everyone was allowed a bit of slump in form.
Smith, who hasn’t looked at his usual self, found a supporter in Warner who related the former’s patchy form with his wretched run during the 2019 Ashes.
Smith – undoubtedly Australia’s premier batsman in Test cricket – has been far from his best form in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series with Ravichandran Ashwin getting the better of him twice and Jasprit Bumrah once.
But more than scrutinising Smith’s approach and prepration for the four-match series, Warner has heaped praises on the Indian attack for the disciplined performance.
“Steve Smith has been recently knocked off by Kane Williamson as best batter in the world (ICC ranking) but if you look at his numbers, he still averages over 60. Everyone is allowed to have a bit of lack of form and I saw that myself when I was in England (Ashes 2019),” Warner said in a virtual news conference on Saturday. He believes that if faced with a good ball, any batsman can get out.
“On a day, if you have your name on that delivery, it is what it is and you can’t do anything about it.”
“As you can see that it’s not due to lack of preparation as the guy (Smith) doesn’t get out of nets. He works off his backside all the time.”
“My 84 Test matches have always been about pre-meditated attacks and it doesn’t change for me but it’s about how the team looks at it. When I talk about intent, I mean by putting pressure back on the bowlers not just by swinging the bat.”
“There are other ways of showing intent which could lead them into bowling those odd full-pitched balls and short of length balls which you can pull or cut. That’s what I talk about when I talk about putting pressure on bowlers.”
“It’s about going out there and playing your shots,” said the man, who has 7244 runs and 24 hundreds in 84 games.
Meanwhile, Warner, who has captained Thangarasu Natarajan in the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad, is excited for his Test call-up. But the Australian is “not hundred percent sure” if the left-arm seamer can be a consistent performer in Test cricket.
“Good question but I am not too sure. You guys would be knowing his (Natarajan) Ranji Trophy stats and how he delivers day in and day out.
“I know he has line and lengths to do that, but obviously, back to back overs in a Test match? I am not a hundred percent sure,” Warner said.