Steven Smith has always been a man of calm and no matter how much you goad him into action, he won’t simply yield to the animations on the field even though he has a few of his own. However, Australia’s frustrating capitulation at the hands of India has made the nonchalant and impassive Smith vent out his anger in the dressing room and it feels like Australia simply hasn’t seen a darker phase of Test cricket.
The visiting Aussies seemed to be in firm control of the proceedings at the end of day 2 where Travis Head pressed the gear hard and the rate at which he scored, it felt as if India was staring down the barrel with at least a potential target of 200 plus on the cards and the way in which the pitch reacted, it was going to be everything but easy.
However, much to the surprise of the Indian cricket fans, they turned the game head on and floored the Aussie batters at the start of day 3 and the visitors were falling faster than those nine pins caught in a twirl.
Australia’s batting coach, Michael di Venuto was not happy with Smith’s dismissal and had reasons to believe that it was his departure that paved the path for Australia’s downfall as it triggered a collapse like none other and things were coming apart at the seams for the Aussies.
Talking about the rift in the dressing room after the incident of Smith outburst, Venuto said, “I haven’t spoken to him yet about that, and where he’s at. But he’s excited about these conditions, he loves these conditions. It will be a frustrating thing for him at the moment that he hasn’t had the impact he would have liked.”
He further said, “He was certainly disappointed when he got out, and he made it known in the dressing room it was a poor shot. I think most people would have heard that, so they should have had a fair idea of what not to do.” Di Venuto continued, “It was pretty obvious where we went wrong. With batting, it’s a pretty similar analogy – you’ve got to swim between the flags (play safe) in this country (India). If you go outside the flags in your game plan, you’re going to get in trouble.”
