Steven Smith is certainly one of the great batsman in world cricket at present. His performances in all the countries against any opposition on any wicket is a testimony to the fact that he indeed is a great batsman. However, all his super human performances have come in the longest format of that game whereas in the limited overs, he has proved to be a mere mortal. Yet, when it comes to India, either Smith raises his game to levels unforeseen or the Indians are so inept that it does not really matter whether Smith raises his game because he will invariably score runs. Why is India unable to get Smith early?
Smith’s performance against other teams
This question is something for which the team as a whole and Kohli & Shastri in particular must answer. Other top international teams have certainly found a way against Smith in the short formats. Just a glimpse at this record reveals how horrible the Indian team have been against Smith in every format of the game. Smith averages 65 against India in ODIs whereas his next best is against West Indies. Against England, South Africa & New Zealand, the current top teams, he hardly touches 40. This is 25 points lower than his average against India.
This clearly shows that those teams have consistent plans against Smith and is able to get him for a pretty low score. The Indians could be forgiven if the difference is slim, say in the region of 5-10 but 25 is extremely high and it shows that the Indian team does not know how to get Smith out for a low score.
In this day and age, when a player’s every move is bisected, trisected and vivisected thoroughly, it is difficult to imagine that India have not been able to keep Smith quiet if not get him early. Kohli is not the person solely responsible for this. The whole support staff must be questioned. What is the video analyst doing? What is the coach Ravi Shastri doing as well as the batting coach? None of them seems to have a clue. The job of a video analyst is to analyse the players from the team as well as the opposition and yet Smith is making mincemeat of the Indian bowlers in whatever format and wherever he plays.
The most recent games at the time of writing this article
In both the recent games at Sydney, in the year 2020, Smith came to the wicket after more than 25 overs elapsed and found a way to score twin hundreds at more than a run a ball. Granted that the wicket was flat and there wasn’t anything for the bowlers. Even the Australian bowlers went for more than 6 an over. The point is, Smith made the bowlers look like children who lost their candy. One quick hundred can be called as freak but two consecutive quick hundreds are not. The Indian team as a whole needs to take the blame.
Smith performance against India and the others in Tests
It is not only in ODIs that Smith is making a mockery of the Indian team. It is also in Tests where he enjoys much better performance against all the teams but fancies in particular, the Indian bowlers. His average against India in Tests & ODIs are atleast a few points more than his average against the other teams. Against India, his average is 84 and against England, New Zealand & South Africa, well below 70. To be fair to the Indian team, Smith in Tests is altogether a different beast. He has scored runs against all kinds of bowlers. Smith was the reason Australia managed to draw the Ashes in 2019.
Some statistics
He has scored only one hundred against South Africa and he needed 17 innings to score that one hundred. He average a pretty moderate 40 against them. This clearly shows that South Africa have found a way to stop Smith. He has 11 hundreds against England but needed 48 innings to achieve that whereas against India, he has 7 in only 20 innings. If the current one day series is anything to go by, he looks good to add few more to this tally in this test series.
The Indians must have plotted for the downfall of Smith, Warner & Labuschange and must have planned for Cummins, Hazlewoon, Starc & Lyon. Instead, they were busy playing in an event that does not have any bearing on the series. I am afraid that the Indian team is in for a leather hunt in the test series if the first couple of ODIs are anything to go by.
Conclusion
What is it that that makes Smith so good against India? It can be adhered to the fact that any game against India attracts the largest cricketing audience. First, Smith probably wants to showcase to the world his prowess and his credentials. Second, Kohli with whom he is often compared for the current best batsman, is in the opposition. He compares himself with Kohli and wants to prove to everyone and to himself that he is certainly a better batsman than Kohli. His performances or lack of it in the limited overs notwithstanding. He wants to show who is better in a head-to-head contest. Third, he loathes failing against a team ranked in the top 3. Otherwise, there isn’t any reason for Smith to raise his game to greater levels against India because Australians in general consider wins against England much more valuable than anything against any other country.
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