SCG: Steve Smith has explained his latest idiosyncrasy after bringing out a new hand gesture during the Ashes series.
During the second Test in Brisbane, Smith appeared to gesture towards England bowler Jofra Archer with his hand after hitting him for a boundary. That incident was during a fiery exchange where Smith told Archer he only bowls fast when there's "nothing going on champion".
Smith did the same gesture when batting against Brydon Carse in Sydney.
READ MORE: ECB slammed for sweeping Brook incident 'under the carpet'
READ MORE: Smith extends olive branch 18 months after Lord's drama
ANALYSIS: Every Aussie player rated for their Ashes performance
On cricket.com.au's Unplayable Podcast, teammate Jake Weatherald theorised it was telling the bowler to have a rest but Smith has since cleared it up.
"I'm not giving signals to anyone, it's to myself actually," he smiled.
"It's how I know my hand is on the bat, particularly when I play a straight drive or an on drive, it's how I want my hand to be on the bat with my right hand and how I use it.
"I do it a bit, it's just a thing that I do, like all the other random things. It's just another one of those, you just seem to pick up on it a bit more maybe."
Sitting next to Smith throughout the press conference was Mitchell Starc, who constantly laughed throughout the question and answer.
Smith has previously been known to give bowlers a thumbs up after a delivery.
The stand-in captain finished the series with 286 runs at 57.20, scoring a century on his home pitch at the SCG after previously missing Adelaide due to illness.
Smith said the pitch was right up there for one of the best pitches he's seen in his 15 years of playing at the ground.
"I think it offered a bit for everyone, the new ball worked a bit, if you batted well and applied yourself you could score runs and then the rough came into play at the back end and there was some cracks there as well," he said.
"It went to day five, almost to the last session, I think it was a really good wicket."
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.