If you bowl short at Steve Smith then you are playing into his hands: Ian Chappell

Ian Chappell, the legendary Australian cricketer, reckons that bowling short-pitched deliveries to Steve Smith might backfire big time on Team India. Ahead of the 2020-21 edition of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, the veteran said that the visitors’ bowlers need to try and unsettle Smith rather than allowing him to settle down and get his eyes in.

Chappell feels that Smith feeds on short balls and bowling them is nothing, but ‘playing into his hands’. As per the former Aussie batsman, Smith prefers playing on the back-foot and chances of getting him out lies on bringing him on the front foot, though it might cost the opponent a few runs.

Steve Smith is very much a back-foot player, says Chappell

“If he bats the way he wants to, then you are in trouble. So, the first thing is that they have to unsettle Steve Smith and have to change his thinking. As far as I am concerned, if you bowl short of length to Steve Smith then you are playing into his hands. Because you are just playing to his strengths,” Chappell was quoted as saying in a virtual press conference.

“He is very much a back-foot player. You got to get him to play forward. Now that might cost you a few runs but the difference, if you bowl and let him play on the back-foot then he will still score a lot of runs without getting out. But if you are making him play on front-foot then he might score runs and he may give you chances to get out,” he added.

Smith wasn’t in the best of form in the T20Is, but the twin centuries he scored at the Sydney Cricket Ground took Australia to a 2-1 victory in the ODI series. Earlier this year, the 31-year-old also churned out an ODI century against the Men in Blue at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

In Test cricket, he has scored 1,429 runs against Team India at a stupendous average of 84.75. The right-hander hammered seven centuries, including a top score of 192 in 2014 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. He is currently ICC’s number-one ranked Test batsman.