Alastair Cook shares his opinions on Steve Smith’s pitch-scuffing controversy in Sydney

Former England cricketer Sir Alastair Cook reckons that Steve Smith’s scuffing saga during the Sydney Test was blown a tad out of proportion. However, the veteran also stated that Smith is most likely to come under the scanner more often due to his past history.

During the fifth day of the third Test at the SCG, Smith was seen at the striker’s end when India were batting. He was seen shadow-batting after which Rishabh Pant had to take fresh guard. After a video went viral on social media, Smith was greeted with a lot of flak from the netizens.

Whether it is intentional or not, only he will know: Alastair Cook

“I think, given what’s happened [with Steve Smith], obviously everything is going to be talked about. I think like anything in a series when you try to put the opposition off, it’s been taken a little bit out of context, I’d imagine. Whether it is intentional or not, only he will know but, yeah, it only makes you more intrigued,” Cook was quoted as saying in an interview with RadioTimes.com on Thursday.

The scuffing incident, to some extent, overshadowed the fact that he got the Player of the Match award for his knocks of 131 and 81 respectively. After the incident, Smith also expressed disappointment and he also got the backing of Test skipper Tim Paine and head coach Justin Langer.

Cook, who retired from international cricket in 2018, lauded India for showing others the roadmap of playing against the Aussies.

“England have some serious strength in depth to be able to go there and play well. You see India have done a job on them in this series and almost showed the way to play against this Australia side,” he stated.

“It’s not easy, but it’s proper grind cricket. India gave nothing away and eventually wore Australia down and full credit to them,” Cook added.

In the Day-Night Adelaide Test, India were beaten black and blue after being restricted to a score of 36 in their second innings.

Thereafter, the visitors were plagued with injury concerns where their bowling attack fell short of experience. But despite the adversities, Ajinkya Rahane guided Team India to the 2-1 series win.