Steve Smith has revealed the reason behind his unorthodox batting stance, which has left many cricket pundits and fans befuddled over the years, and said that it was an attempt to limit the chances for him to get out.
Smith, who plies his trade with the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, talked about his unusual posture while batting during a podcast organised by the IPL team which also featured New Zealand spinner Ish Sodhi.
“It depends on who’s bowling, how is the wicket playing, how I gonna score and stuff like that or how people are trying to get me out, probably that determines how open I am or otherwise how closed I am,” Smith said.
“But my general stance where my back foot is going to almost off stump or may be even outside at stages, I know that anything outside my eyeline isn’t hitting the stumps,” he said.
The world number one Test batsman informed that he goes by the logic of one should not get out if the ball doesn’t hit the stumps and that his off-stump stance helps him to leave the balls which are outside his line of sight.
“For me, you shouldn’t get out if the ball is not hitting the stumps, so that is just a trick from me when I first started doing it, just limiting the ways I get out.
“Sometimes, I get trapped in front but I’m okay with that at stages, knowing that if it is outside my eyeline, I don’t need to try and play the ball, I can just leave that,” Smith explained.
Smith, who had lost his captaincy after being banned for a year by Cricket Australia for his role in the ball-tampering scandal in a Cape Town Test against South Africa in 2018, made an incredible comeback, becoming the highest run-scorer in Tests in 2019.
The IPL 2020, which was scheduled to be played from March 29, has been postponed to April 15 due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has already affected more than 4,400 people and killed over 110 in India.
With India in the middle of a 21-day lockdown till April 14 in an attempt to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, IPL 2020 has been subjected to an existential crisis as the April 15 is unlikely to happen. An official statement is still awaited.
(With PTI inputs)