Steve Smith is regarded as one of the finest players in modern-day cricket. He is one of the special Australian players who is equally adept at playing pace as well as spin. Therefore, the right-handed batter was expected to make a big impact during the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023, which is being held exclusively in India for the first time. However, his start to the campaign wasn't promising, as he scored just 72 runs in the first four innings.
Like most legendary batters, Smith went back to the drawing board, worked hard in the nets, made technical adjustments, and showed his class with a fluent 68-ball 71 against the Netherlands in Delhi, on Wednesday. Smith revealed that using the traditional leg-stump guard and switching his grip from bottom to top-handed facilitated his return to form.
"I moved back to leg stump a little bit. I got my hands a little bit higher than what they've been for the last week. For some reason, they've dropped down a bit. I just felt it in the nets yesterday and everything sort of clicked back into place again," Smith was quoted as saying by India Today after Australia beat the Netherlands by a record 309 runs.
"I felt like I was batting well a couple of weeks back against India. I thought I was actually getting back through the ball nicely on a pretty tough surface and playing well and then for a week kind of lost it for a bit," Smith continued.
I felt like I've been batting really well: Steve Smith
The 34-year-old said that he felt good after batting in the nets on Tuesday, ahead of the clash against the Netherlands. Smith noted that he was getting into good positions during his half-century against the Dutch side and hoped that he would build on this performance in the games to come in the ODI World Cup 2023.
"I got a couple of nice balls, I suppose the one that swung back and got me out, and (Kagiso) Rabada's, which was a little questionable. I felt like I've been batting really well. I just needed to get the feel again and batting yesterday at the nets straight away I had a smile on my face at the back end. I felt good and took that into today and felt nice. I thought I was getting good positions today and yeah, hopefully that continues," Smith added.
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