Video footage of Smith’s stump camera dragging his boot across the crease on a tense final day of the game went viral on social media with some former players accusing him of prowess in the best of games, and cheating in the worst.
After the drinks break, Aussie reaches Shadow Bat and clears the batters’ guard marks. Rishabh Pant then comes back… https://t.co/uwtAHhSZdM
– Cricket Badger (@cricket_badger) 1610325033000
Smith told News Corp on Tuesday that he was “shocked and disappointed” by suggestions that he had tried to gain an unfair advantage.
“It’s something I do in games to visualize where we are bowling, how the batter is playing our bowls and then out of habit I always mark the center,” he added.
“It’s a shame that this and other events have been subtracted from what was a great hitting performance from India yesterday.”
Captain Tim Paine said Smith, who was stripped of the Australian captaincy and suspended for a year in 2018 for his role in the Newlands ball-handling scandal, had simply been indulging in one of his many idiosyncrasies.
“If you’ve seen Steve Smith play test cricket, that’s something he does every game five or six times a day,” Paine told reporters Tuesday.
“He’s always standing in the shadow of the bat. As we know, he has a lot of Steve Smith quirks and one of them is that he always scores the center.
“He certainly wasn’t changing (Pant’s) guard and if he had, that’s something the Indians would have been a bit upset about at the time,” added Paine, who also apologized for his own conduct after sledding. Ravichandran Ashwin.
Pant’s heroic 97 strike set the stage for India to save the Test after setting an overwhelming goal of 407 to win, with Hanuma Vihari and Ashwin thwarting Australia’s attack in the final three hours to secure a draw.
Paine said Smith may have to abandon the practice given the way it was interpreted.
“It’s something you might need to look at because of the perception you have,” Paine said.
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