Ollie Pope claims that England will approach Smith in significantly different ways in the next Ashes
Vice-captain Ollie Pope said that England would have a new plan in place to handle Australian batsman Steve Smith when the Ashes series begins the following week.
Playing in English conditions and against England, Smith has an outstanding record. He scored 774 runs at an average of 110.54 despite being struck in the head by Jofra Archer during the 2019 Ashes at Lord’s.
When he struck 121 runs in Australia’s first innings in the World Test Championship final at The Oval in English conditions, the Australian batsman seemed to be in top form once more.
Because Australia will face England in the Ashes opener on June 16 at Edgbaston, Pope is fully aware of the risk. However, the 25-year-old did state that he thinks England’s bowlers are ready for Smith since they know how to bowl at him.
In our locker room, we have a number of talented bowlers who have developed tactics for hitting him from both sides. It will thus probably be our primary concern, in my opinion. Pope told British reporters, “I can’t say too much, but I think the plans are a bit different this time.
He has been a fantastic player for a very long time and has performed well in many different contexts. But regardless of who is batting, our squad has succeeded at adopting a variety of tactics to take wickets and coming up with ways to get 20 wickets in a game. Hitting the top of the off isn’t a requirement for any of these tactics.
In order to attempt to obtain Steve Smith’s wicket, he remarked, “Steve Smith is a highly skilled batter and scores a lot of runs, but I think for him we might be looking at even quirkier ways to challenge him, test him out, and make him as uncomfortable as we can.”
