Steve Smith: We won't just be serving up flat pitches in Australia for the Ashes

[Gollum]

STEVE SMITH INTERVIEW: Bazball in the Ashes? England will need to try something different - we won't just be serving up flat pitches in Australia

LINK

 

Music to my ears. Now let us see how many Poms chicken out of the series. Brook for sure, he will invent some excuse to stay put in England. Stokes may play but will do his usual pointless drama. Duckett, Crawley, Pope? 

 

Root seems to be a rare nice guy in their setup but he will definitely be up against it.

 

Ashes is going to be so much fun. Just leave Lyon out and play Boland, pack the cordon with 5 slips, 2 gullies and ask them to tee away. 

 

Btw notice how Smith is talking about the kind of pitches they will serve up. Yahi koi Indian player hota toh, pitch doctoring bolke ICJ mein hearing karwa dete yeh gore. 

Edited July 31, 2025 by Gollum

[Bigg Brother]

England's batting line up is better than Australia this time. Although Australian batters step up when it matters but on paper England have better batting.  Khawaja,Labuschagne,Konstas all are miserably out of form. 

[Gollum]

3 minutes ago, Bigg Brother said:

England's batting line up is better than Australia this time. Although Australian batters step up when it matters but on paper England have better batting.  Khawaja,Labuschagne,Konstas all are miserably out of form. 

On spicy tracks these Bazballers won't do anything. When Pak brought in those turners, you saw how Poms folded right? Any lateral movement, be it spin or seam, their techniques aren't equipped to handle. Even the steep bounce/pace in Perth, Brisbane will cause them trauma.

 

OTOH guys like Smith, Khawaja, Labu, Green, Carey, Webster will churn out tough runs....and Head will win a test or two on his own, even if he fails in 8 other innings. 

Edited July 31, 2025 by Gollum

[Stan AF]

[Nikhil_cric]

12 minutes ago, Gollum said:

On spicy tracks these Bazballers won't do anything. When Pak brought in those turners, you saw how Poms folded right? Any lateral movement, be it spin or seam, their techniques aren't equipped to handle. Even the steep bounce/pace in Perth, Brisbane will cause them trauma.

 

OTOH guys like Smith, Khawaja, Labu, Green, Carey, Webster will churn out tough runs....and Head will win a test or two on his own, even if he fails in 8 other innings. 

It's a double edged sword. It brings English bowlers into the game big time. 

 

They need to make flat wickets with bounce.

 

Just like how we beat England on Indian wickets which were mainly flat but with enough turn/reverse for our bowlers to exploit. 

[R!TTER]

If Stokes fires then Eng definitely have an even chance of winning or at least drawing the series! If your cap does well, in an equalish contest, your chances of winning it almost double - this is why I was super critical of RGS throwing away his wicket in WC final & then even worse in NZ home series or Oz tour 

 

* that fat arse still had admirers here till last December/Jan when it was perfectly clear he was the big reason why we were losing - go bang bang, on what exactly 

[Serpico]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

On spicy tracks these Bazballers won't do anything. When Pak brought in those turners, you saw how Poms folded right? Any lateral movement, be it spin or seam, their techniques aren't equipped to handle. Even the steep bounce/pace in Perth, Brisbane will cause them trauma.

 

OTOH guys like Smith, Khawaja, Labu, Green, Carey, Webster will churn out tough runs....and Head will win a test or two on his own, even if he fails in 8 other innings. 

no I think Aussies are shooting their feet just like India did against Nz last year. On flat decks, Aussie pace trio+Lyon is miles above England's best possible bowling lineup, not to mention Wood&Archer will be cooked in first match itself bowling 150+ overs. By giving up this advantage they are pretty much leveling the field for the opposition.. think about the Shamar Joseph test at Gabba two years ago or that match where Rabada took 5 wickets in 5 overs in fourth innings.. we will see something ridiculous like that again and England might finally win a test in Aus after 15 years

[nevada]

1 hour ago, Stan AF said:

From Kill Bill? 

[Serpico]

if Wood+Archer can be fielded in 3 tests, England will win atleast one of them for sure. Especially Archer will destroy Khawaja and Head and will put lot of pressure on Smith

[StraightDrive26]

Sorry I don't buy this Archer will do that, Wood will do this etc. England have only won one series in Australia in the last 3 decades. Australia start as heavy favourites as usual. England will have to play out of their skins to win anything in Australia. Their performance against a young Indian team with poor bowling attack shows that they are going to struggle against, Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Boland. Their batting isn't technically sound and except for Root, none of their batters can actually defend. Contrast that to Australia who normally play very well at home, you can see a 3-1 win for the home team. Don't see England bothering Australia in Australia. They aren't as good as they think they are. 

[Stan AF]

16 minutes ago, nevada said:

From Kill Bill? 

Yes 

[Serpico]

13 minutes ago, StraightDrive26 said:

Sorry I don't buy this Archer will do that, Wood will do this etc. England have only won one series in Australia in the last 3 decades. Australia start as heavy favourites as usual. England will have to play out of their skins to win anything in Australia. Their performance against a young Indian team with poor bowling attack shows that they are going to struggle against, Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Boland. Their batting isn't technically sound and except for Root, none of their batters can actually defend. Contrast that to Australia who normally play very well at home, you can see a 3-1 win for the home team. Don't see England bothering Australia in Australia. They aren't as good as they think they are. 

England will get a chance once in every generation when Australia is going thru transition phase. That chance is now

[vvvslaxman]

Australia's batting depth will be tested. But having said that India has forced England fine tune their batting approach. They are slightly more responsible now. Having said that they failed to  bat out 100 overs against India that did not have Bumrah at the Edgbaston.  They didn't know how to draw