by sussexpob » Wed Jan 07, 2015 12:01 pm
He is in the phase of his career in the next 12-24 months which is most important, simply because he is now the man on the radar that people will assess and take very seriously.
I am not convinced he can maintain this average, I still see a player that defensively has pretty noticeable weaknesses that can be exploited, to the short ball and to good bowling at the stumps. He plays across the ball at times, and although his recent success is based on a level of solidity that has taken out the cheap dismissal, I think a good and committed bowler can get him out to plan . To the short ball, I still think he doesnt get his hands out the way well enough.
A good example I can think of is Gautam Gambhir, a player in 2008-09 that scored something ridiculous like 8 x 100 and 7 x 50 in a period of 13 test matches, yet when he became a focused batsman to which people had to really look into and assess, his technical frailties were exposed, and he struggled to get any kind of score after that. He ended his career at the top with 1 hundred in his next 30 odd tests.
Michael Hussey also went through a 25 match period after his initial burst onto the scene, where he rarely justified his place. He too struggled to adapt to bowlers properly looking into his technique, and it took his 2-3 years to really come to terms with that.
A batsman has three main phases of a career:-
1. Initial phase - Can he play international cricket at the top level - Smith obviously can
2. Adapting phase - Usually about 20-50 matches in, once bowlers are exposed more and know more about you, are there any weaknesses you have that let you down? If there are, do you have the mentality and quality to still score? Can you adapt your technique to meet the challenge?
3. Answer phase - 50 tests plus, essentially at this point is a batsman is then struggling to match initial achievements they will settle and eventually become what they really are, if they are still scoring then they are probably the real deal
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