Steven Smith has let his bat do the talking for him, reckons Glenn McGrath
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Glenn McGrath believes that the suspension from cricket that Steven Smith faced had him wanting to prove his mettle to the world and his absence from the game only made him more eager to perform. He termed the twin centuries as ‘special’ and lauded him for emerging from the situation victoriously.
Making his comeback to international Test cricket after almost a year and half, Steven Smith has shut all his critics with a match winning performance in the first Ashes Test match. Last year, Smith admitted he was guilty of being involved in a ball tampering incident against South Africa, which earned him a one year ban. However, he has announced his return with aplomb, as he scored 144 and 142 in the first and second innings respectively against arch rivals England to record a mammoth 251 run victory.
Every time Smith stepped out onto the Edgbaston field or reached a milestone, he was jeered by the home crowd but he did not let that bog him down. Ultimately, the jeers turned into applause out of sheer respect for the genius that the man is.
“You have to go out there and let the bat do the talking. It’s been 16 or 17 months since what happened in South Africa, it’s time to be left in the past. The crowd was giving Smith a pretty hard time. For him to come out there and perform shows the mental strength he has,” McGrath was reported saying by Hindustan Times.
Smith’s centuries took his tally to 25 hundreds in 65 matches, coming at an astounding average of 63. However, amidst the plethora of memorable performances, the one in the recently concluded match will definitely go down as one of the 30 year old’s finest ever.
“He (Smith) just went out there and looked at ease, he looked like he had so much more time than anyone else in the whole match. That episode made him a lot hungrier. Those were couple of special innings, they meant a lot to him and the rest of the team,” McGrath concluded.
