Smith will enter the duel for the urn in type after posting his thirty first Test ton (seven of which have are available in England) on day two of the World Test Championship ultimate in opposition to India at The Oval.
Smith has lengthy been the bane of England’s existence. He scored a series-topping 774 runs from simply 4 Tests throughout the 2019 Ashes.
But Pope stated England would look to counter Smith with unorthodox strategies.
“He loves batting in England, over the years he averages over 60 here now. It’s obvious he knows these conditions and he knows his game inside out, so there’s a lot of respect for him,’’ Pope said.
“But there’s also a lot of talented bowlers in our changing room who have worked out ways we can challenge him. I can’t say too much but there’s probably slightly different plans this time.
“He’s got his routines – his slightly longer routines – before he faces each ball and he won’t be ready until he’s done all those routines. What’s made him successful is that stubbornness and that stubbornness for runs as well. That’s exactly the bubble we’ve got to try to get him out of.
“Steve Smith is a highly-skilled batter and scores a lot of runs but I think for him we might be looking at even quirkier ways to challenge him, test him out and make him as uncomfortable as we possibly can to try to get his wicket.’’
Smith said after play on day two that he had reverted to moving more across his stumps while batting, a method that brought him huge success four years ago.
“Yeah, I quite like it for English conditions and the way the ball bounces over here,” Smith stated.
“It obviously worked when I was here last time. And yeah, just the positions I get myself into, it doesn’t mean I’m going to do it all the time. I may revert back to old styles at certain periods when I feel it’s necessary, but on this surface and with the bowlers I was coming up against, I felt that was the right way forward.”
Originally printed as World Test Championship ultimate day three dwell: Scoreboard, news from The Oval
Source: www.news.com.au
