Aaron Finch and Faf du Plessis reflected on Steve Smith’s remarkable transformation from a leg-spin bowling all-rounder to one of the world’s best batters, his return to international cricket following the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, and his leadership qualities, including his stint as captain of Rising Pune Supergiants after MS Dhoni’s removal.
Aaron Finch opened up about Steve Smith’s evolution from a leg-spin all-rounder to a world-class batter:
“Steve Smith went from being touted as Shane Warne’s replacement, starting at eight in the batting order, bowling a few overs of leg spin, getting the odd runs as the finisher. Then something changed overnight. He turned into this absolute gun of a batter that took the world by storm. He was always a handsy player with big movements, moving his feet a lot. Then he simplified that and everything clicked. All the talk initially about him was a bowling all-rounder who’s ready to become the next big thing in Australian cricket, but then something clicked with his batting in Test cricket and he worked it out. The ability to go from number six and five for so long and then slip into number four in the batting order was extraordinary. He’s the best player I’ve ever played with by a mile. He says, I’m doing it this way, I don’t care what it looks like to the outside world, this is what will make me most successful. That is a superpower. To see what he does when others can’t, you can’t explain why players like me or David Warner couldn’t do it, but he could. It’s a natural gift, but also hard work, the hours he’s put in. It’s extraordinary.”
On Smith’s return after the 2018 sandpaper scandal and the challenges of captaining him as a player:
“After the 2018 incident, coming back into the international setup, Steve Smith was more relaxed as a player because he didn’t have the captaincy for obvious reasons. As captain, so much of your time goes into things away from your own game. And then getting the amount of work he wanted done put extra pressure on him mentally, because you need to get this much work done to feel ready to go, but you’ve still got to worry about everybody else. So finding that balance, not having that captaincy pressure post 2018 was probably a weight off his shoulders because he sits there and goes, now I can just worry about myself. I found it really difficult to captain with him in the side at the start, because I’d played under him for quite a bit of time and tactically, I thought he was an outstanding captain. So, I found myself at times being like, is this the right move? What would Smith think? And then one day he just said, why do you keep asking me? Just make your own decision.”
On Steve Smith’s batting during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2015 and his mindset:
“One of my favourite memories of playing with Steve Smith is the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup of 2015, when he was turning into a beast of a batter, batting at number three. Everyone remembers the quarter-final between Australia and Pakistan for Wahab Riaz vs Shane Watson, but batting at the other end was Steve Smith. It was like he was batting with a stump. He was making Wahab look like medium pace. And then we go to the semi-final against India and he gets a hundred off 89 balls and he batted like a dream, and then he played an unbeaten knock of 56 in the final against New Zealand. He didn’t show even one bit of nervousness in those three games. Those three knockout stages are the most pressure games of a World Cup, and this guy was batting with absolute calmness. Not one thing enters his mind negatively about batting. I see it as a secret power, because it means that they don’t carry any baggage into the next innings.”
Faf Du Plessis reflected on Steve Smith being made captain of Rising Pune Supergiants after MS Dhoni was removed:
“MS Dhoni was removed as captain of Rising Pune Supergiants after the end of the 2016 IPL season, and that’s the biggest move you can make in a tournament of that stature. We hadn’t won a couple of games, and the owner at the time made the decision to change the captain. Everyone was shocked after that call. MS Dhoni as captain was gone, and Steve Smith was the new captain. That was pretty early on in his leadership career. He wasn’t experienced, but he did a good job. It was tough having MS Dhoni as your number two there, especially after he’d just been removed as captain. Smith led the team to the final, and we lost that final, which we should have won. We were that close. Winning that final would have made Smith an IPL-winning captain in just one season of captaincy. That says a lot about him.”
