Going for 100, Smith not worried by struggle as captain

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, September 20

Steve Smith is one of the coolest captains around.  He rarely gets agitated or annoyed, even if the question asked is quite provocative. On Wednesday, he was asked to respond to a comment made by his predecessor Michael Clarke — the former Australian skipper had called his leadership into question by saying that his “captaincy was being challenged.”

Smith, however, refused to get drawn into a potential verbal battle and offered a straightforward answer. “I don’t think I am in a bad place in my captaincy,” he said. “Obviously, results haven’t been as we would have liked for a little while and that’s something we are trying to rectify.”

Australia had a miserable Champions Trophy outing (much of it was because of the rain), and then they suffered their first ever Test defeat to Bangladesh before barely managing to draw the series. And the current series, too, has started on a bad note for them. The skipper, however, didn’t sound too worried. 

“It’s a disappointing start to the series but we have another game tomorrow, we will try and turn things around,” Smith said.

Smith will play his 100th ODI tomorrow, and he took the opportunity to reflect on his journey so far and his evolution from a leg-spinner to the top batsman he’s become. “I think I have evolved a lot as a white ball player. Been batting at No. 3 for a while now, had to find the right tempo of the game.”

Asked to pick his best ODI innings, he chose his ton (105) against India in the 2015 World Cup semifinal. “It was a pretty big game, it was good to stand up and get to score a hundred,” said the Australian captain.