Steve Smith has admitted that he was furious with himself following his dismissal during the second innings of the Delhi Test against India, admitting that he is “still learning” his craft in the subcontinent.
Notably, Smith was dismissed for only 9 by Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin after attempting an audacious sweep shot, a stroke he rarely uses, on day three of the second Test at Arun Jaitley Stadium. Smith’s LBW dismissal sparked an 8-28 collapse in Delhi, with India eventually winning by six wickets to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in less than six days.
“I’ve played, what, 95 Test matches (94) and I don’t think there have been too many times I’ve walked off the field and I’ve gone, ‘what the hell am I doing?'” Smith told reporters ahead of the Indore clash.
Smith averages 52.21 with three Test hundreds in India, which is among his best away from home. However, he has only managed 71 runs in four innings so far in the ongoing series, including a three-ball duck in the first innings in Delhi.
“I was pretty angry. There haven’t been too many times in my career where I’ve actually come off and just been bedazzled by what I’ve done. It wasn’t my finest moment.
“Certainly something to learn from, I’m still learning as well. It wasn’t the way I wanted to play, particularly when I had the field set for all of us – they had the field out.
“We probably just rushed things a little bit and it’s something we’ll talk about …when we’ve got them on the ropes, we can slow things down. We don’t have to play at such a high tempo and risky tempo. Because we had them where we wanted them, we had men out and the ability to get off strike. We just rushed it.”
