Brisbane (26th Nov, 2019): Australia’s prolific batsman Steve Smith has claimed that Pakistan’s leg-spinner Yasir Shah’s unique celebration after taking his wicket in the first Test.
The former Aussie captain revealed that he was now motivated to not give his wicket to the leg-spinner.
“It gave me a bit more motivation next game to not get out to him,” Smith told reporters in Adelaide on Tuesday. “So I will probably be a little bit more disciplined against him.”
Smith revealed that he had a system of rewards and punishment after each match inorder to maintain the standards necessary to thrive in international cricket.
“I always punish myself when I get no runs, just like I reward myself when I score runs with a chocolate bar at the end of the night if I get a hundred,” he said. “So yeah, if I get no runs I always like to have a run or go to the gym or do something just to give myself a bit of a punishment.”
The 30-year-old praised Shah for his spell on a pitch that did not offer a lot of assistance for the leg-spinner.
“I feel the times he (Shah) has got me out, I have been on a few runs,” he said. “I have been slogging in a couple of second innings ones where I was playing some funky shots and stuff so I’m not too worried. I thought he bowled really well at the Gabba, got some good drift and a little bit of spin on a wicket that probably wasn’t spinning that much, so bowled well.”
Smith added that he was trying to play aggressively because of the situation and believed he would have played a longer and safer innings if the situation was otherwise.
“I probably do bat a little bit better when there is pressure on, for sure. The situation we were at was a pretty good one. I actually spoke to JL (coach Justin Langer) in the morning. I was like ‘how should I approach this today, what do you think?’ and he said ‘do what you want to do’. I thought about being quite aggressive and it didn’t work. It’s fine with me. I know that batting, you fail a lot, so when you get in need to make the most of it,” he concluded.
Stay tuned to Baaghi TV for more updates.
