Steve Smith, the former Australian captain, has defended his actions where the camera caught him erasing the guards marked by Rishabh Pant during the drinks break on the fourth day of the third Australia-India Test at Sydney Cricket Ground.
Explaining his actions, Smith told News Corp, “It’s something I do in games to visualize where we are bowling, how the batter is playing our bowlers and then out of habit I always mark center.” “It’s such a shame that this and other events have taken away from what was a great batting performance by India yesterday,” he added.
Earlier, Tim Paine, the Australian skipper too had defended Smith’s actions saying that it is one of Steve Smith’s quirks which he needs to improve upon, but it was definitely not cheating.
“If you’ve watched Steve Smith play test cricket, that’s something that he does every single game five or six times a day,” Paine had told reporters.
“He’s always standing in the batting crease shadow batting. As we know, he’s got those many Steve Smith quirks and one of those is he’s always marking the center. It’s something that he might need to look at because of the perception of it,” the 36-year-old skipper, who took over the captaincy from Smith post the sandpaper gate case, added.
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