Bowling to Steve Smith at the SCG in the third test match, India’s spearhead Jasprit Bumrah couldn’t control imitating the batsman’s animations. While returning to his run-up, Bumrah shook his shoulders in a funny fashion to mimic the Aussie. Steve Smith can be defined as Pandora’s box of animations when it comes to his batting.
Whether it is taking a run, denying one, or even setting up his stance, Smith always has something moving and the emotions coming out loud. Flashback to the Ashes 2019, Smith made a comeback into Test cricket was continuously booed by the crowd. Then started his awkward preparations.
Watch: Jasprit Bumrah mimics Steve Smith
As he says in an Amazon Prime documentary- “Left pad, right pad, box, tap in the middle, two behind my foot look up..”
His back-foot gets planted in the line of off-stump. Leaving deliveries, playing them, and wording something that almost sounded gibberish, and that has been Steve Smith.
Hahaha @Jaspritbumrah93 reaction on Smith #AUSvIND ?? pic.twitter.com/vjgOMokAMn
— Jasprit Bumrah FC (@JBFC93) January 7, 2021
On Thursday, the first day of the third test match, Smith was up to his usuals. However, this time around unlike the rest of the Border-Gavaskar series so far, the Australian mainstay was in great form. He kept finding boundaries from time to time and stayed quick on his feet.
However, Jasprit Bumrah on the other side had been struggling to get a breakthrough after Marnus Labuschagne and Will Pucovski had already laid the foundation with a hundred run stand between them. Coming back for his run-up, Bumrah made a funny face, shook his shoulders as Smith would do.
What Ishant Sharma Had To Say?
This incident would remind people of the 2017 Australia’s tour of India. When Ishant Sharma made a funny face to tease Smith.
“It was quite a close game, that one. People tend to do things when swayed by emotions. Often, you do anything to upset the batsman, with either remarks or actions. Whatever I could do to upset him, I would just do that. Smith also tends to upset the bowlers a lot. We knew back then and even now if we dismissed him, we could go on to win the match,” Ishant said, recalling the incident on ‘Open Nets with Mayank’ on BCCI.tv.
“At that point in time, I was just trying to upset him. I was thinking and finding new ways about how to do it. I was just trying to get him out of his comfort zone and force him to make a mistake. Was trying to make him uncomfortable.”
However, Smith has many times said that the awkwardness comes naturally to him. Further, speaking about the unorthodox batting stance that he takes, Smith said that his body posture depends on the bowler he is facing. Also, it depends on how the wicket is playing on that particular day. However, it is mainly to limit the way of getting dismissed for Smith.
As Australia Finished On 166-2 At Stumps On Day 1, Steve Smith Said-
” I AM GOod WITH WHAT WE HAVE. IT WAS nice to spend a bit of time out there. nice to stitch in a partnership with Marnus. I wanted to put Ashwin under a little bit of pressure which I have NOt done this series. Was just trying to hold the grip a bit tighter. I HAVe been struggling, so I was getting into good positions today. Was good to get a couple of boundaries early. Marnus played well, hopefully we go along well tomorrow.”
