Veteran Australian batter Steve Smith joked that he almost fell into the new guard that opener David Warner had made while batting on Day 1 of the World Test Championship (WTC) final against India as well. Smith, who was unbeaten on 95 overnight, registered a well-deserved 31st Test ton on Day 2 of the WTC final on Thursday. Smith and Travis Head (163) tons put Australia in a strong position as they ended their first innings on 469. Notably, earlier on Day 1, David Warner smashed a 60-ball 43.
During the lunch interval on Day 2, Ricky Ponting discussed Warner’s guard. When he was asked about Warner’s batting guard, Smith quipped: “I nearly fell in it. I got used to it eventually but almost twisted my ankle a few balls to be honest then I sort of got used to it. I’ve never experienced that before on that side really, you occasionally get the edging of the footmarks at the backend of the game where you kind of fall into them where you are off balance, but when I’m moving to off stump and I’ve got this hole there it’s something I haven’t experienced before. I’d no idea it was coming until I walked out and marked my guard and saw this big hole. Was just wondering who made this? Think I asked Marnus [Labuschagne] what was going on at the end, there’s a big hole I’m about to fall into. It was odd.”
Steve Smith and Head stitched 285 runs for the fourth wicket to lift Australia from 76/3 after they were asked to bat in the all-important WTC Final. “Maybe he should it more often, it worked for me. He can keep digging that hole I suppose… whatever the batter needs I suppose to get themselves into a good position,” Smith added.
Reacting to David Warner adopting a new method to try and mark his guard, Ricky Ponting applauded the veteran batter for his commitment towards improving his game as well. Warner struck eight fours also.
“He’s actually got a line going across the back vertical to the stump line. And look at each end of that line there, there’s two quite deep holes. Now I know for a fact, having worked with David Warner for the last couple of years, a lot on his batting, when he’s batting his worst, his trigger movement has gone back outside leg stump. So only two days ago he came up with this plan of digging two holes and making sure that when he moved his foot that his foot stayed within those two holes. If he moved back and across, he could feel his heel going into the hole. If you move too far across to the off stump, then his toes go into the hole. That’s the sign of a modern player, someone that’s played over 100 Tests still trying to find a way to get better,” Ricky Ponting added while speaking on Channel Seven
