Steve Smith and his lack of Steve Smith-like runs
So I made this video on Smith and how teams have changed their bowling to him, which is essentially straighter and shorter. And since being hit on the neck by Jofra Archer, he's struggled with both. Essentially he's become mortal.
Smith made runs today, and he will make more. There is nothing in the video that suggests otherwise. I am not sure his days of scoring more runs than everyone else are over, even if they are paused.
But you still saw that he's not the batter he used to be; his leave to a straight ball was so bizarre.
And it could only be that he was worried about the legslip and decided not to play a shot at all. But it showed how much bowling straighter at him with legside catchers seems to be playing with his mind in a way it never used to.
Mind you; it wasn't the weirdest leave he had today.
The dismissal was important as well. Because it was again another backfoot shot, angled at him from Stuart Broad. It was a good delivery, but nothing that should trouble someone like Smith.
Before his decline started, Smith averaged over 100 from this length in Tests, and was only dismissed by it six times. Now Broad alone has him twice with it, and in this series, Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood have him there too. In all it's eight dismissals in just over two years, almost exclusively at home, and he's averaging 18 from back of a length. All while scoring at less than two runs an over.
With catchers on the legside now, it appears you can bowl length or back of a length straight at Smith, and he no longer happily flicks it away to get off strike. That seems to bother and dismiss him.
Jack Leach and the defensive fields
There has been a lot of chat about the fields for Leach, and that's because they're really noticeable. Your number one spinner coming on with blokes so far away he can barely see them while he tries a line that will only get him a wicket if the batter loses his mind is not ideal.
But ofcourse part of this is just that Leach doesn't dismiss left-handers, and Australia produces them at an astonishing level.
The defensive fields are because Leach can't constantly threaten left-handers until the pitch starts to rag. He has 11 southpaw wickets, and three of them are in the match's first innings. Leach averages 166 against left-handers in the first innings of Tests. And they score at 4.4 runs an over against him.
Most left-arm finger spinners struggle with lefty batters; that's part of the gig. But Leach seems to have a bigger problem with them.
Someone sent me this tweet:

And the thing is, Leach doesn't seem to have this skill set at all. And so until there is help from the central part of the pitch, or the footmarks, he seems to have little game.
That is why he has basically stopped trying to take their wicket, or letting them score. The thing was today, he actually bowled pretty well to Usman Khawaja for a period. He trapped him around the crease and beat him for length and line, until he eventually took the outside edge and Root dropped the catch.
Not all lefties are the same. The defensive field and lines are probably a decent option against Dave Warner, Rishabh Pant and Travis Head. They will attack anyway, because they want to end him. And having players on the boundary is still a catching position.
Khawaja was never going to do that. So while you can understand England being defensive or worrying about ruining Leach forever, they needed early wickets. And he was troubling Khawaja enough, without getting punished. They could really have changed that plan.
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