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- Jan 13, 2010
Article by Sylvester -
The calls for Steven Smith’s inclusion in the Test side had died down after Marcus North had a productive tour of NZ which included a century and a ninety. But last week Ricky Ponting hinted at the prospect of playing two spinners in India and maybe even giving Smith a try against Pakistan.
Before the start of the NZ tour, Steven Smith had been in red hot form including career best bowling figures of 7 for 64 against South Australia which he backed up with 772 runs at 77.2. This was the prime opportunity to give Smith a go with his confident sky high. For mine it was a missed opportunity, especially with the Ashes around the corner.
Fast forward a few months and we are now in a similar position but North has got the runs on the board this time. Since the NZ tour, Smith has cemented his spot in the T20I lineup and managed to finish as the second highest wicket taker in his first major International tournament. During the tournament he showed his vast array of deliveries including his wrongun, flipper and the most promising was his ripping leg break to Pollard.
While his bowling is continually improving, it should be his batting that gets him into the Australian Test time at the moment. His bowling is not quite up to the standard required to play as one of the main bowlers and putting him in the side as a bowler could well end like the failed Cameron White experiment. His batting on the other hand, looks to have no real weakness and he rescued NSW numerous times.
Pakistan cricket might be at rock bottom with the on and off field turmoil but their bowling remains one of the best units in the game. It would give a much more in depth look into any deficiency in Smith’s technique. If North is retained, he will have a great opportunity to cement his spot for the Ashes, however failure could open the door right up for Smith to take his spot in India.
It’s unlikely the selectors will pick Smith for the Pakistan series, but they have always been keen on picking two spinners in India. Steven Smith’s teammate, Simon Katich knows all too well about the selectors fascination for picking a spinning all rounder. He was overlooked for Andrew Symonds during the tour of Sri Lanka because the selectors wanted a second spinner and an off spinner to back up the leg spin of Shane Warne. This time round the roles are reversed with Smith the leg spinner backing up Nathan Hauritz the off spinner.
Marcus North’s off spin bowling is more than useful but with Nathan Hauritz in the side, his bowling is too similar to Hauritz for my liking. While we shouldn’t pick a batsmen for his bowling, Smith and North’s batting talent appear to be even, North of course has the advantage of four test centuries but in my opinion, there isn’t much separating the two in this department. Fielding is the other department a player can be picked for, Smith like Symonds is a breathe of fresh air in the field and he can field in the slips which has been a problem area for Australia recently with North contributing a great deal to this problem.
So is it Smith time? With the Ashes just around the corner, I feel it’s a good chance to give Smith a run as a batsmen. If he succeeds, then the selectors no longer need to worry about playing two spinners (assuming Hauritz is still being picked) and they have a batsmen capable of counter attacking and a fielder that will save a lot of runs not to mention take a fair few screamers. The big question is do the selectors see Smith as a batsmen or a bowler? Given how they have selected Smith so far, it appears he is seen as a bowler and as I mentioned earlier, that could end very ugly if they want to play two spinners this way.
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The calls for Steven Smith’s inclusion in the Test side had died down after Marcus North had a productive tour of NZ which included a century and a ninety. But last week Ricky Ponting hinted at the prospect of playing two spinners in India and maybe even giving Smith a try against Pakistan.
Before the start of the NZ tour, Steven Smith had been in red hot form including career best bowling figures of 7 for 64 against South Australia which he backed up with 772 runs at 77.2. This was the prime opportunity to give Smith a go with his confident sky high. For mine it was a missed opportunity, especially with the Ashes around the corner.
Fast forward a few months and we are now in a similar position but North has got the runs on the board this time. Since the NZ tour, Smith has cemented his spot in the T20I lineup and managed to finish as the second highest wicket taker in his first major International tournament. During the tournament he showed his vast array of deliveries including his wrongun, flipper and the most promising was his ripping leg break to Pollard.
While his bowling is continually improving, it should be his batting that gets him into the Australian Test time at the moment. His bowling is not quite up to the standard required to play as one of the main bowlers and putting him in the side as a bowler could well end like the failed Cameron White experiment. His batting on the other hand, looks to have no real weakness and he rescued NSW numerous times.
Pakistan cricket might be at rock bottom with the on and off field turmoil but their bowling remains one of the best units in the game. It would give a much more in depth look into any deficiency in Smith’s technique. If North is retained, he will have a great opportunity to cement his spot for the Ashes, however failure could open the door right up for Smith to take his spot in India.
It’s unlikely the selectors will pick Smith for the Pakistan series, but they have always been keen on picking two spinners in India. Steven Smith’s teammate, Simon Katich knows all too well about the selectors fascination for picking a spinning all rounder. He was overlooked for Andrew Symonds during the tour of Sri Lanka because the selectors wanted a second spinner and an off spinner to back up the leg spin of Shane Warne. This time round the roles are reversed with Smith the leg spinner backing up Nathan Hauritz the off spinner.
Marcus North’s off spin bowling is more than useful but with Nathan Hauritz in the side, his bowling is too similar to Hauritz for my liking. While we shouldn’t pick a batsmen for his bowling, Smith and North’s batting talent appear to be even, North of course has the advantage of four test centuries but in my opinion, there isn’t much separating the two in this department. Fielding is the other department a player can be picked for, Smith like Symonds is a breathe of fresh air in the field and he can field in the slips which has been a problem area for Australia recently with North contributing a great deal to this problem.
So is it Smith time? With the Ashes just around the corner, I feel it’s a good chance to give Smith a run as a batsmen. If he succeeds, then the selectors no longer need to worry about playing two spinners (assuming Hauritz is still being picked) and they have a batsmen capable of counter attacking and a fielder that will save a lot of runs not to mention take a fair few screamers. The big question is do the selectors see Smith as a batsmen or a bowler? Given how they have selected Smith so far, it appears he is seen as a bowler and as I mentioned earlier, that could end very ugly if they want to play two spinners this way.
More...
