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The first Test between the Australia National Cricket Team and the Bangladesh National Cricket Team concluded on Sunday, August 16. The Bangla Tigers shocked the hosts, winning the game by 9 wickets and creating history as they won a Test for the first time in Australia. After the match, former Australia skipper Steve Smith shared his insights.
Bangladesh were excellent from the very first day of the Test match; they completely dominated the home side at the Marrara Stadium in Darwin. The victory over Australia by 9 wickets is the biggest win by an Asian Team in Australia (by wickets); they surpassed the previous record of India (2020) and Pakistan (1977). Najmul Hossain Shanto will be proud of the way his team performed.
Steve Smith lauds Bangladesh's performance
While speaking to ABC World Media, Steve Smith said that the visitors completely outplayed them. Steve Smith praised Bangladesh’s bowling attack, especially the pacers, who breathed fire on the first day of the game, shocking the Australian batters and the world cricket fraternity. He also slammed the batters for lacking discipline in the first innings.
Steve Smith said, "I thought Bangladesh bowled really well the first morning, really disciplined. The batters probably weren't disciplined enough and then, yeah, second innings they batted really nicely. Got too many in front and, yeah, we weren't able to catch it up yesterday on what was a pretty decent wicket to bat on."
"Pretty simple: we were outplayed."
— ABC SPORT (@abcsport) August 16, 2026
Steve Smith was pretty frank in his assessment of Australia's upset defeat to Bangladesh.
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Steve Smith happy after Cameron Green's century
Smith also pointed out the fact that some batters got the start in the match, but they failed to convert it into a big score. He praised Cameron Green for his fighting hundred in the second innings, as the all-rounder did not have anyone in support; the latter played a knock of 104 runs off 201 deliveries, smashing four boundaries and one six.
Speaking on the score, he believes that anything above 200 would have been a good score to be in the game; however, he stated that Bangladesh bowlers were amazing till Day 4 and never gave the hosts a chance to make a comeback into the match.
"A couple of us got starts and didn't go on with it. Greeny (Cameron Green), I thought, played really nicely to get a hundred but, yeah, he didn't have any partners to go with him. Yeah, we needed probably 200 at least plus to be in the game there and, yeah, as I said, got outplayed."
"Yeah, I mean, I hope it's one bad week"- Steve Smith on Australia's performance
Smith was asked if it was just one bad game and a week for the Australian side or there are further concerns. Replying to that, the former skipper believes that it's a one-bad-game and one-bad-week situation for the side, and they have played good and consistent cricket over a long period of time and hopefully will be back to their best in the second Test.
"Yeah, I mean, I hope it's one bad week. Yeah, I mean, we're the number one team for a reason. We've played really good, consistent cricket over a long period of time and, yeah, this week was a bit of a blip and, you know, we got outplayed."
"They played really nicely, so you've got to give credit to Bangladesh. Yeah, we could have done things a lot better, but, yeah, credit goes to them for the way they played throughout these last four days."
