Steve Smith's Technique Would Have Been Accepted If He Was An Indian - Coach Woodhill

From classy Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar to unconventional MS Dhoni, Sehwag and the latest Rishabh Pant, the Indian Cricket has always accepted and celebrated their batting styles. However, all is not same when it comes to England and Australia, as they want people to look stylish when they stroke the ball. Meanwhile, the coach of Steve Smith Trent Woodhill feels the time has come for Australians to accept a talent like Steve Smith.

Steve Smith finished the 2019 Ashes with 774 runs. This, despite walking out to bat only seven of the ten times Australia did. He scored 35.5% of his team’s runs through the five matches. These are astonishing numbers by any standard and thus, brought attention to Bradman’s statistics.

Read More: Brisbane Heat Sign Mujeeb Ur Rahman And Zahir Khan For BBL 2019-20

We like Sexy Shaun Marsh’s 30 Than Steve Smith’s 100 – Woodhill

Steve Smith’s formative coach Trent Woodhill observed that Smith’s uniqueness would be accepted in the Indian system, where it is “all about the output”. Smith redefined the art of run-scoring in an Ashes series. Meanwhile, Woodhill said uniqueness and unorthodox styles should be celebrated.

His former coach Trent Woodhill feels that had Smith been an Indian batsman, the system there would have accepted him wholeheartedly without questioning the manner in which he bats. He believes that Australia’s obsession with the style of play would have ended now after Smith’s tallies.

“If Steven was Indian, his technique and mechanics and the strategy around his batting would just be accepted,” Woodhill was quoted as saying in ESPNcricinfo. We see Kohli, Gavaskar, (Rohit) Sharma, Ganguly, Sehwag – all these players have unique techniques. The Indian system is all about output, about scoring runs.”

‘We don’t care how you do it as long as you do it’, whereas in Australia we wanted you to score well and we wanted you to look good. In Australia, we struggle with things that are different. We like a sexy Shaun Marsh thirty, made with a conventional, attractive technique, rather than an unconventional Steven Smith hundred.”

Former Australia skipper Smith retained his position at the top of the ICC Test Player Rankings after the Ashes with Kohli sitting behind him on the second spot. Smith’s scores of 80 and 23 have helped him remain 34 points ahead of Kohli with 937 rating points, an incredible effort since he started the series in the fourth position with 857 points

Read More: Tim Paine To Skip BBL To Prepare For Red-Ball Cricket