Smith's Technique Would Just Be Accepted If He Was Indian, Says Coach

Steve Smith's formative coach said that if the former Australia captain was an Indian, his technique would "just be accepted". Trent Woodhill, who was the Indian Premier League (IPL) side Royal Challengers Bangalore's fielding coach in 2018, criticised Australia's alleged aversion to unconventional batting styles while adding that the Indian system is about the output and scoring runs and not about how they are scored. "If Steven was Indian, his technique and mechanics and the strategy around his batting would just be accepted," Woodhill told ESPNCricinfo.

"We see Kohli, Gavaskar, [Rohit] Sharma, Ganguly, Sehwag - all these players have unique techniques. The Indian system is all about output, about scoring runs," he said. "'We don't care how you do it as long as you do it,' whereas in Australia we wanted you to score well and we wanted you to look good," he added.

"If you want to succeed, you had to bat like Greg Chappell, Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke. This mentality has been to Australian cricket's detriment," he said.