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The ICC ODI World Cup 2023 has already provided cricket fans with its fair share of thrills, spills, and surprises. Although the Australian cricket team started off the tournament on a shaky note, the five-time world champions didn’t take long to make a comeback in the event with a bang and are once again proving their mettle in the tournament.
Australia’s most recent win came against the Netherlands, whom they defeated by a huge margin of 309 runs and marked their third consecutive victory in the World Cup event after two back-to-back losses in the first two matches.
The victory for the Aussies over the Dutch came with many positives as they ticked all the departments during the match. Among the many reasons to celebrate was also the resurgence of their star batter, Steve Smith.
Steve Smith’s struggles and redemption
It is worth mentioning that Smith had a decent start to the ODI World Cup 2023, scoring 46 against India in Australia’s opening match. However, Smith’s form declined after that, and he found himself struggling with only 19, 0 and 7 in the next three games. It was a perplexing slump for one of the world’s most celebrated batters. Nevertheless, Smith made a remarkable comeback in the match against the Netherlands, contributing an impressive 71 runs to his team’s resounding victory.
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Smith sheds light on the change that helped him regain his form
Following Australia’s win over Netherlands, Smith revealed what turned the tide in his favour and stated that a change in his batting technique was the key to his return to form. He highlighted that the alteration that he implemented involved moving back to the leg stump and switching his grip from bottom to top-handed.
“I moved back to leg stump a little bit. I got my hands a little bit higher than what they’ve been for the last week. For some reason, they’ve dropped down a bit. I just felt it in the nets yesterday, and everything sort of clicked back into place again,” said Smith, explaining his technical adjustment.
Smith reflects on his performance
Smith also reflected on his performance against India, acknowledging that he felt in good touch at the beginning of the tournament. He even admitted not being up to the mark in the subsequent matches.
“I felt like I was batting well a couple of weeks back against India. I thought I was actually getting back through the ball nicely on a pretty tough surface and playing well, and then for a week, I kind of lost it for a bit,” reflected the former Aussie skipper.
