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AFLW 2024 - Round 10 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
Steve Smith
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Bomber Bears
Cancelled
He's already an excellent batsmen in his own right, I hope they back off his bowling. Seriously, Warne was a freak for being good so young, but give Smith a bit of time and see how it develops, and make the most of his batting for now
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Nobody is saying they don't like him but he is being built up into something he isn't- yet
I think the part where his visibly average bowling is for some reason being regarded as threatening.
Don't see him ever being successful as anything other than a part time bowler.
He'll be a batsman. That much is obvious. And assuming his current path - a very good one.
And any criticism of Slater for being an annoying twat is inevitably warranted.
His bowling is very hit and miss right now, definitely. He gets a good amount of turn, flight, drift, etc, he has all the ingredients to be a very good spinner indeed, but too often he bowls a long-hop, or a ball down leg, or a ball wide outside off. If he can develop consistency, learn to maintain pressure on the batsmen, he'll take a lot more wickets. As it is, he only really usually takes wickets with ripping deliveries (like that one to Pollard in mattf83's post), and no bowler bowls that sort of delivery often enough to rely upon it.
People compare his bowling to White, but they are very different bowlers. White was always reasonably consistent, but there was just nothing special about his bowling. He got barely any turn, he extracted a bit of bounce to make up for it but not much, he was accurate enough but not deadly, etc. To be a good bowler with those, you have to be very, very smart, very, very disciplined, and very, very consistent. Kumble is that bowler. White simply wasn't, so his bowling was quickly found out to be part-timer quality at the most (personally I think people are critical of White's bowling, I reckon he is better than people give him credit for, and the main reason he doesn't bowl himself is both his captaincy style, generally not looking to part-timers, and his own focus on his batting).
Smith, on the other hand, does more with the ball than White could ever dream of, but, while White is not nearly as consistent or clever as a Kumble, Smith pales compared to White in this regard. If Smith could bring his consistency with ball in hand up to a semi-decent level, which with a bit of work should be possible, then he'll be a very handy bowler indeed.
Personally, I reckon Smith should give priority to his batting, but he should by no means abandon his bowling, and over the next few years look to bring it up to a better-than-part-time level, and maybe even better than that looking beyond.
He's already a gun, and deserves selection purely as a batsmen.
He's a batter who can bowl a bit; you'd probably use him as your main spinner with support from Kat/Pup, but he's not quite an All-Rounder just yet.
He's a batter who can bowl a bit; you'd probably use him as your main spinner with support from Kat/Pup, but he's not quite an All-Rounder just yet.
The Falcon Strike
Hall of Famer
It's a pity about Kat's shoulder - because IMO he is the most threatening test spinner in the country - which is an absolute blight on our spinning stocks.
Heisenberg_
17🏆19🏆20🏆
This forum has people under rating his batting far too much and over rate his bowling.
The last two men to score as many 100s as he did last year at the same age was a guy named Ricky Ponting and a guy called Damien Martyn.
May have heard of them.
yeah i reckon if we played him we'd gain an extra bat (very good one) and we could lose hauritz. between kat, clarke and smith one of them would have to find the mark on any given day and hauritz prolly just isn't good enough to waste a spot on except on the occasional raging turner maybe. plus he's a demon in the field and brings some keenness to the team. i like him.
Preaching to the converted mate.
Heisenberg_
17🏆19🏆20🏆
I know I just get closer and closer to smashing my computer screen every time I see somebody put him in at 7/8 in their Test XI
In fairness, this stems from the fact that he was first selected as a bowler at 8 in T20Is, and he's a much better bowler, and somewhat poorer bat, in that format than he is in OD and FC formats. Selecting him at 8 in T20Is is understandable, and I'm sure that plays a role in people putting him at 8 in Tests, even though he's a much better bat than that in the longest form of the game.
Kim Hagdorn
Club Legend
The thread was started by a Victorian. What surprise...
Kim Hagdorn
Club Legend
If the bloke wore a Bushranger uniform there would be massive cries around here that the selectors were in a conspiracy to keep him out of the Test side.
And if he played for any other state no-one would have heard of him.
Don't be ridiculous.
That's just bullshit. Nobody would have heard of a guy who averaged 77 in his first full season of FC cricket, hitting 4 tonnes along with way from just 8 games, and finished off the season with a 7 wicket haul? Not to mention taking over a wicket a game at less than 20 in T20.
Come off it. The kid is a fantastic talent. His state has nothing to do with it.
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Let me ask again..
Would Smith even be in consideration if Warne had not made those comments about his bowling?
The three players bantied around would all be ahead of him (Smith) but if not for his bowling he would not even rate a mention in these times of rebuilding.
He batted in the top 6 for NSW, where he made his runs, then was talked up about his bowling then how did he do with the bat after this? how did his bowling go from here?
Would Smith even be in consideration if Warne had not made those comments about his bowling?
The three players bantied around would all be ahead of him (Smith) but if not for his bowling he would not even rate a mention in these times of rebuilding.
He batted in the top 6 for NSW, where he made his runs, then was talked up about his bowling then how did he do with the bat after this? how did his bowling go from here?
His bowling is irrelevant, most of us want him in the side as a batsmen in the Clarke/Katich mould.
Smith would absolutely be in consideration. He was the best batsman in the competition last Shield season.
How did he go with the bat after what? His bowling has been talked up since the start, and in T20, he has been arguably the best spinner in Australia, which was why he was called up. He needs much further development as an OD and FC bowler, but that's always been the case.
In any case, he hit 4 tons last season, at 77, and his bowling steadily improved, culminating in a 7 wicket haul in the final match of the season. I fail to see your point.
All the talk about Smith started at the end of the 09/10 season. So it terms of 'where did he go from there', he played a couple of Tests and hit a 77 coming in at number 8 and got 3 wickets at 27. In ODI's he's averaging 27 coming in at number 8 and in 9 ODIs got 9 wickets at 33.
All the while easily being our best fielder.
So in terms of 'where did he go from there', he debuted for Australia and showed a lot of promise, but hasn't had a lot of opportunities because it was the off season.
http://www.cricinfo.com/the-ashes-2010-11/content/current/story/486424.html
Murali speaks:
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Australia will announce their squad for the first Test on Monday and they might include both Hauritz and the legspinning allrounder Steven Smith, to leave themselves plenty of options. However, Test cricket's leading wicket taker, Muttiah Muralitharan, who played against Smith in the recent ODI series, believes Hauritz is the man to carry Australia's spin burden during the Ashes.
"Smith does not have much control and he must learn more about bowling spin before he plays Test cricket again," Muralitharan said. "There are many things he must learn. He is not good for Test cricket at the moment.
"I don't think Smith would do any better than Hauritz. I know Hauritz did not bowl well in India but lots of spinners have struggled there against Indian batsmen, who play spin very well. Hauritz should play in the Ashes."
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Murali speaks:
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Australia will announce their squad for the first Test on Monday and they might include both Hauritz and the legspinning allrounder Steven Smith, to leave themselves plenty of options. However, Test cricket's leading wicket taker, Muttiah Muralitharan, who played against Smith in the recent ODI series, believes Hauritz is the man to carry Australia's spin burden during the Ashes.
"Smith does not have much control and he must learn more about bowling spin before he plays Test cricket again," Muralitharan said. "There are many things he must learn. He is not good for Test cricket at the moment.
"I don't think Smith would do any better than Hauritz. I know Hauritz did not bowl well in India but lots of spinners have struggled there against Indian batsmen, who play spin very well. Hauritz should play in the Ashes."
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