It hasn’t been a series to remember for the Indian cricket team. Team India has lost their first two ODIs to Australia to lose the series and it has attracted much criticism. Steve Smith has looked in ominous touch in the series as he has smashed two consecutive hundreds to power his side to victory against India. It is just not the centuries that have hurt India but the manner in which he has scored those runs.
While he hit 105 runs off just 66 balls in the first ODI, Smith took only 62 balls to hit a hundred in the second match. Due to Smith’s brilliance, Australia have put up totals of 374 and 389 respectively in the first two ODIs.
But former Australia spinner Brad Hogg isn’t happy with the strategy that Indian bowlers have stuck to against Smith. Hogg said that the bowlers could have tried to bowl more bouncers to Smith.
“The big issue for me for India was when Steve Smith came out, they didn’t attempt to bounce him out at any stage. They bowled on a good length or a little fuller. I can’t understand that, because Steve Smith’s weakness is with the short-ball,” Brad Hogg said in a video on his YouTube Channel.
“Steve Smith walks around, he was both legs planted and he is a little chest-on. So he can’t duck and leave and has to play the pull shot. You could have set the entire tour up by having Steve Smith on the back foot,” he further added.
{{/usCountry}}“Steve Smith walks around, he was both legs planted and he is a little chest-on. So he can’t duck and leave and has to play the pull shot. You could have set the entire tour up by having Steve Smith on the back foot,” he further added.
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Hogg also talked about how short-pitch deliveries trouble Maxwell also but India haven’t been able to exploit that chink in his armour.
‘And again Glenn Maxwell, just bowling full yorkers to him so that he can play those reverse sweeps. He is a player that you should bowl the short ball to and they didn’t do it enough,” Hogg said.
Australia have won the three-match series after wining the first two ODIs. They play India in the third match in Canberra on Wednesday.