CHENNAI: Ten matches. 1429 runs. Seven centuries and three fifties. This is Steve Smith’s record against India. A player who is standing between India and defending the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Like David Warner, India didn’t get to see Smith the last time they toured Australia in 2018/19, as he was serving a one-year suspension for his involvement in the sandpapergate fiasco in South Africa. But here is, back again doing what he likes most. He has already received complaints from the tenants living under his hotel room about the sound of bat tapping the floor at night.
“I never really got into a good rhythm (in the IPL), but I think the last few days actually I’ve found something. People close to me that know me well, I’ve found my hands the last few days, which I’m excited about. Theoretically, it’s a simple thing.
It’s just getting that feel and the look of the bat behind my toe the right way and the way my hands come up on the bat. I had a big smile on my face after training the other day, because I walked past Andrew McDonald and said ‘I found ‘em again’, I was really excited,” Smith said.
It is the last thing India would have wanted to hear.