Steve Smith's wicket will be the key for England's comeback in the day-night Test: James Anderson

The hosts gained the upper hand in the Ashes series by winning the first Test match at Gabba by 10 wickets and secured a crucial lead of 1-0. But it’s also sure that the Joe Root-led English team will try everything to make a comeback in the second Test, which will be the first ever day-night fixture in the Ashes history. England’s veteran fast bowler James Anderson feels the early wicket of Australian captain Steve Smith will be the key for the visitors in the upcoming Test match.

The first Test match was evenly poised, till Steve Smith took the crease and started playing his shots and also gave respect to the good balls bowled by the England bowlers. He played an unbeaten knock of 141 runs which helped his side take an important first innings lead of 26 runs. Before Smith joined hands with left-hander Shaun Marsh for a 99-run partnership, England team were in a dominant position reducing the hosts to 76-4 at one stage.

Smith’s innings was the difference between the two teams

Anderson revealed that the Aussie skipper’s innings was surely the big difference between the two sides in the first Test match. His knock provided the team the platform to secure the first innings lead. The fast bowler also admitted to the fact that if the Aussie captain had got out cheaply, the visitors would have been in a more dominant position.

“He was the difference between the two teams. That first-innings lead would’ve been huge for us,” said Anderson in a conversation with the reporters.

The most experienced bowler from the visiting team believes getting the Aussie captain dismissed early on in the second Test match would increase their chances of winning the game. He stated that plans for his wicket were definitely made but we failed to execute them properly at Gabba. The ultimate focus afterwards was to dry down run making areas of the Aussie captain.

As per the quotes on cricket.com.au, Anderson said “So, getting him out here will be crucial. Hopefully more pace in the wicket might help us, but we’ve just got to be as relentless as we possibly can to someone like that. Obviously, the plans to him, I wouldn’t say they didn’t work, but we didn’t get him out, so they worked to an extent. We dried his runs up and made him work really hard for his hundred but obviously we want to get him out,”