Australia batter Steve Smith on Tuesday said that his job is to revive the innings for his side if the top-order ends up getting dismissed early in the shortest format of the game. Australia won its opening game of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup against South Africa on Saturday and the Aaron Finch-led side will now take on Sri Lanka on Thursday.
“It’s a little bit different to what I’ve played previously, but my job basically is to fix it if our top order don’t come off, then if our top order do go well the likelihood is I’ll slide slightly down the order and let our big strong boys go out and attack it. Think I’ve done it pretty well in the first couple of trial games and our first game,” Smith was quoted as saying.
Talking about the nature of wickets in the UAE, he said: “Even throughout the IPL there was a lot of really scrappy cricket, not huge scores, which made the games pretty interesting and quite close. Slightly different to a lot of T20 cricket, quite often it’s flat wickets and big scores, so you have to change slight ways you play and adapt according to what’s required on that surface. It’s been interesting so far.”
“Don’t think the other day 120 was indicative of the surface. Both teams bowled and fielded really well and probably didn’t bat very well but do think we’ll see plenty of scrappy cricket in this tournament,” added the 32-year-old.
Smith managed to score 35 runs off 34 balls against South Africa, but he fell before his side got over the line, and in the end, it was Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade who took Australia past the finishing line.
“Think you need ability to get off strike, manipulate the ball to certain areas more than just the power. Some of these wickets even the powerful blokes have struggled to hit sixes so you need some smarts about you, playing the situation, and having the ability to limit dot balls,” said Smith.
