Australian pitches will challenge England – Smith

In this winter’s Ashes, Australian pitches will present a new challenge for England’s batters, according to Steve Smith.

Following the rousing draw in 2023, where England look to regain the urn for the first time since 2015, the first Ashes Test series will take place in Perth on November 21.

Smith averages 56.01 in Tests against England, but he anticipates a more difficult task for batters this time around. He is currently representing Welsh Fire in this year’s Hundred.

Their batters will face a slightly different set of circumstances than the wickets they have taken over England for a while, which have appeared to be fairly uninspired and good for batting, according to Smith.

Top order batsmen have had to take a lot of difficult wickets in Australia over the past three or four years. They will face a formidable challenge in the process.

However, the series is going to be fantastic. I’ve been watching the India and England series, and there’s some excellent cricket playing there. I’m anticipating the Ashes this year to be a belter.

Smith, 36, added that both teams’ respective pace attacks were strong. The top order of Australia struggled in the most recent series against West Indies, where their highest overall total was 286 in three Tests.

The three combined to defeat West Indies for just 27 earlier this month despite the recent discussion about Mitchell Starc, 35, Josh Hazlewood, 34, and Scott Boland, 36, who are both coming to the end of their Test careers, and their skipper and fellow quick Pat Cummins did not manage to bowl an over in the innings.

Smith has also observed a different approach from England when Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum took charge of the 2023 series, which was only a year later.

According to Smith, “They have started playing a little bit differently in the last couple of weeks in terms of how they play the situation, as opposed to trying to be the entertainers that they claimed they wanted to be.”

Welsh Fire had already agreed to Smith’s participation in The Hundred’s inaugural edition in 2020, but the match was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He claims that playing in the competition is on his “bucket list” because he wants to play more franchise cricket around the world to regain his place in Australia’s T20 team and compete in the Olympics.

Cricket will play for the first time since 1900 at the Los Angeles Games in 2028.

With the goal of making the Olympic team, Smith said, “I decided to stop playing one-day cricket so that I can play more franchises.”

Therefore, it will only be beneficial to participate in shorter-form tournaments around the world.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time, and it’s been a long time. I want to keep putting my name out there even though I’m still enjoying it, especially the shorter formats.