English
Australia Test captain Tim Paine feels Steve Smith will continue his run-spree in the fourth Test match at The Gabba, Brisbane. Smith returned to form in the Sydney Test and slammed a sublime century in the first innings to put Australia on top. The premier batsman continued his golden-run in the second innings and scored 81 runs to set up a formidable target for India.
However, Smith was criticized for his scuffing up the area around the batting crease on day five when Rishabh Pant was batting. Many cricket critics and fans bashed Smith for his sportsmanship. This was not the first time when Smith got into a controversy, early he was banned from cricket for a year after the infamous ball-tampering scandal in 2018.
Paine backed the senior batsman and said he is in a good frame of mind and has handled the criticism supremely well.
“Steve is in a good frame of mind. I think we’ve seen through what he’s been through in the last three years… he’s mentally very strong, very tough. He knows sometimes he’s going to be criticised and he’s handled that supremely well,” Paine said ahead of Friday’s Test match.
Paine further said Brisbane will witness the best of Steve Smith in the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“If anything, I think he feeds off it. His statistics speak for themselves and we’ll see the best of Steve Smith again this week,”
While, earlier, Smith also displayed his disappointment over the criticism he faced after the Sydney incident and said it’s his habit to always mark the centre.
“I have been quite shocked and disappointed by the reaction to this. It’s something I do in games to visualise where we are bowling, how the batter is playing our bowlers and then out of habit I always mark centre,” Smith told the Daily Telegraph, as reported by Fox Sports.
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