Shoaib Akhtar slams Jofra Archer for not checking up on injured Steve Smith

Shoaib Akhtar criticized Jofra Archer for not checking up on Steve Smith, who was floored by one of his bouncers during the fourth day’s play of the second Ashes Test match between England and Australia

Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar criticised England pacer Jofra Archer for ‘walking away while Steve Smith was in pain’. Smith was hit fluish on the neck by an Archer 148 km bouncer and was forced to retire hurt because of the impact. The former Australia captain, however, was cleared off any serious injuries and came out to bat later on. He was finally dismissed for 92 on Day 4 of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s.

Shoaib Akhtar (L) not happy with Jofra Acher’s (R) behaviour(HT Collage)

“Bouncers are a part & parcel of the game but whenever a bowler hits a batsman on the head and he falls, courtesy requires that the bowler must go & check on him. It was not nice of Archer to just walk away while Smith was in pain. I was always the first one to run to the batsman,” Akhtar tweeted on Sunday.

 

Archer was also criticised by the netizen after his smiling photos along with Jos Buttler surfaced on social media. It, however, was not clear whether Archer was actually smiling at Smith’s ordeal.

That was not the only blow Smith had to endure off Archer’s bowling. Firstly he was struck on the elbow by Archer and soon after he received a striking blow on the neck by a bouncer bowled by the pacer and he immediately went down.

 

Physios from both England and Australia attended Smith, but the batsman had to leave the park in order to have a concussion test. A little while later, the batsman made his way back to the crease, but a section of England crowd was seen booing the player.

Smith went on to play a knock of 92 runs against England in the first innings of the second Test match.

The right-handed batsman has been in a rich vein of form as he struck centuries in both innings of the first Test match. He became only the fifth Australian to score centuries in both innings of Ashes Test.

He also surpassed Indian skipper Virat Kohli to become the second-fastest batsman to register 25 Test centuries.

Ever since, Australia landed in Australia to play the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup and Ashes, Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft have been subjected to boos from the England crowd.

The trio was involved in a ball-tampering scandal against South Africa in 2018 and this resulted in the players getting suspended for one year.

In the ongoing second Test of the Ashes, England will resume day five at 96/4 with a lead of 104 in the second innings.

(With agency inputs)