'He’s made a slight tweak'- Greg Blewett decodes how Steve Smith's change in grip helped him escalate his batting in T20s

While Steve Smith is regarded as arguably the best Test batter of this generation, his records in the shortest format were dismal. In fact, the middle-order sensation had to warm the bench for most of Australia’s T20 World Cup 2022 campaign before getting a chance in the final Super 12 fixture against Afghanistan where he managed just a run-a-ball four.

However, Steven Smith has finally succeeded in proving his critics wrong by make his bat do the talking consistently in the ongoing Big Bash League (BBL) 2022 representing the Sydney Sixers where he has so far registered two centuries and a quickfire half-century.

All this has been possible for Smith after he decided to change his batting technique in order to get the desired results. In fact, former Australian cricketer Greg Blewett has analyzed on how the 33-year-old has been scoring runs consistently in the ongoing BBL.

He’s opened up a little bit it’s still around a fairway: Greg Blewett

During his analysis, Blewett compared Steven Smith’s batting styles of BBL 9 and 12 and explained how the veteran batter has made a slight tweak in his technique while holding the bat.

“You can see on the left, (during season 9) how far is his bottom hand. He’s made a slight tweak (in season 12). He’s opened up a little bit it’s still around a fairway. But you can see in the back face on the left-hand side it’s closed. Then on the right it’s just a little bit more openly spoken about actually under-spinning the ball instead of hitting it with the spin,” he said while presenting on 7 Cricket show.

This new technique has paid rich dividends to Smith of late and he is on a roll as Sydney Sixers look to make a statement in this year’s Big Bash League. Smith scored a 66-ball unbeaten 125 in a game against city rivals Sydney Thunder where he breached three figures in just 56 deliveries. He had also scored a match-winning 56-ball 101 against the Adelaide Strikers.

Recently, the 33-year-old scored 66 runs off 33 deliveries against the Hobart Hurricanes at an outstanding strike rate of 200.

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