Dragon Fire
Club Cricketer
- Joined
- May 4, 2010
- Online Cricket Games Owned
Steve Smith: The Selection I Can't Grasp
What I'm asking is quite simple, do you think that Steve Smith is the most over-rated player in the world at the minute? First the selection pundits touted him as the next Shane Warne, with the agreement of the man himself, (the great picker of talent that brought us Michael Beer and Xavier Doherty; combined test record: 4 wickets @ 104.5) and when he managed to score some runs he was suddenly the next Damien Martyn. Do you agree that Smith has the potential to be a world-class all rounder, or do you feel that he is just someone who has been lumbered with too much expectation at too tender an age?
Let us start with his bowling, the first facet of his game to hit the selection radar. He bowls flighted but erratic leg breaks that do not turn much. This means that most of his wickets will have to come from beating batsmen through the air rather than off the pitch. Unfortunately, I just don't see that happen often enough. I would say that Steve Smith's bowling looks of a similar stature to Cameron White's leggies five years ago, and we all know how completely that has dried up.
So, if his bowling dries up, what has he got to fall back on? His batting is effective in State cricket, but his loose technique and poor judgement outside his off stump have led to him only notching up two fifties in forty five international matches. When you take into account that of late he has been selected as a specialist for this skill alone, you can see why I don't think that he is justifying his continued selection.
Lets look solely at the numbers:
Tests
| 5 matches | 259 runs @ 28.77 | 3 wickets @ 73.33
ODIs | 24 matches | 299 runs @ 23.00 | 21 wickets @ 33.23
T20Is | 16 matches | 124 runs @ 15.50 | 16 wickets @ 20.81
From his career stats, Smith looks a decent one-day bowler, but in his last ten matches he has notched up only five wickets at sixty, so we have also to ask whether it is the run of good performances or the run of poor performances that is the blip. The final thing I will mention is that his development has been massively hindered by Australia's indecision as to what use they intend to put him to. You cannot have a successful international career when from game to game you change from being a number four batsman to a first choice spinner, and a twenty-one year old who is still learning his place in the game needs that consistency.
So, in closing, I feel that he would be better replaced by someone like Steve O'Keefe as a pure spinner, Nathan Hauritz as a spinning all rounder or by Usman Khawaja as a top order batsmen. I simply can't see why he is still being selected, let alone why he is regarded as a poor man's Garry Sobers.
What I'm asking is quite simple, do you think that Steve Smith is the most over-rated player in the world at the minute? First the selection pundits touted him as the next Shane Warne, with the agreement of the man himself, (the great picker of talent that brought us Michael Beer and Xavier Doherty; combined test record: 4 wickets @ 104.5) and when he managed to score some runs he was suddenly the next Damien Martyn. Do you agree that Smith has the potential to be a world-class all rounder, or do you feel that he is just someone who has been lumbered with too much expectation at too tender an age?
Let us start with his bowling, the first facet of his game to hit the selection radar. He bowls flighted but erratic leg breaks that do not turn much. This means that most of his wickets will have to come from beating batsmen through the air rather than off the pitch. Unfortunately, I just don't see that happen often enough. I would say that Steve Smith's bowling looks of a similar stature to Cameron White's leggies five years ago, and we all know how completely that has dried up.
So, if his bowling dries up, what has he got to fall back on? His batting is effective in State cricket, but his loose technique and poor judgement outside his off stump have led to him only notching up two fifties in forty five international matches. When you take into account that of late he has been selected as a specialist for this skill alone, you can see why I don't think that he is justifying his continued selection.
Lets look solely at the numbers:
ODIs | 24 matches | 299 runs @ 23.00 | 21 wickets @ 33.23
T20Is | 16 matches | 124 runs @ 15.50 | 16 wickets @ 20.81
From his career stats, Smith looks a decent one-day bowler, but in his last ten matches he has notched up only five wickets at sixty, so we have also to ask whether it is the run of good performances or the run of poor performances that is the blip. The final thing I will mention is that his development has been massively hindered by Australia's indecision as to what use they intend to put him to. You cannot have a successful international career when from game to game you change from being a number four batsman to a first choice spinner, and a twenty-one year old who is still learning his place in the game needs that consistency.
So, in closing, I feel that he would be better replaced by someone like Steve O'Keefe as a pure spinner, Nathan Hauritz as a spinning all rounder or by Usman Khawaja as a top order batsmen. I simply can't see why he is still being selected, let alone why he is regarded as a poor man's Garry Sobers.
(generally...)
