Matthew Hayden Warns India To Be Wary Of 'Wounded Warrior' Steve Smith

Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden has warned the Virat Kohli-led Indian cricket team to be wary of the No.1 ranked Test batsman in the world and their nemesis-in-chief, Steve Smith, in the upcoming Test series.

Matthew Hayden, while analyzing the much-awaited India-Australia Test series on Star Sports show ‘Game Plan’ reminded the Indians of Steve Smith’s astounding numbers against them in their previous Test encounters.

Smith has smoked 1429 runs in just 10 Test matches against India at a barely believable average of 84 which also includes as many as seven hundred.

“Steve Smith loves playing against India. He has almost scored 1500 runs at just sub a 100 average. He has had plenty of success against India.” Matthew Hayden said.

Steve Smith missed the last Test series against India in the 2018-19 season due to a 12-month ban that he had coped for his involvement in the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal.

India went on to script history as they became the first Asian team to beat Australia in a Test series Down Under. Hayden said that Smith would have been hurting from the fact that he did not get to help his side two summers ago and he would be raring to make amends for it this time around.

Matthew Hayden also reminded India that Steve Smith has already stamped his authority on them in the ongoing summer while alluding to his two 62-ball hundreds in the One-day International series.

“He will be a little dirty as well that he wasn’t involved in the 2018-19 series where India did get up. That was a big loss for Australia and a big loss for him in person as well because in the 2014-15 series he had a huge average of 128 for something like that and 700-plus runs. So, he was a major contributor to that series. Sometimes, the wounded warrior is someone you need to be careful of.” Matthew Hayden said.

“We have already seen Smith come out in the ODI series and start to look to dominate India. He has got a couple of hundreds already. He has looked dangerous in that format of the game. And he will be hungry, a bit like Virat, there is no end to the size of their stomach when they start consuming runs. They really just love it.” he added.

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