Melbourne, Jan 2 (PTI) Once in a while, everyone is allowed a bit of slump in form and Steve Smith is no exception, feels David Warner, who can relate to his former skipper’s woes against India having endured a similarly wretched run during the 2019 Ashes. Smith has been in horrible form in the ongoing series with R Ashwin removing him twice and Jasprit Bumrah once. But Warner believes that it’s more about India bowling well then anything lacking in Smith’s approach as he has left no stone unturned in terms of preparation. “Steve Smith has been recently knocked off by Kane Williamson as best batter in the world (ICC ranking) but if you look at his numbers, he still averages over 60. Everyone is allowed to have a bit of lack of form and I saw that myself when I was in England (Ashes 2019),” Warner said in a virtual news conference on Saturday. He believes that if faced with a good ball, any batsman can get out. “On a day, if you have your name on that delivery, it is what it is and you can’t do anything about it.” “As you can see that it’s not due to lack of preparation as the guy (Smith) doesn’t get out of nets. He works off his backside all the time.” For Warner, the 84 Test experience that he possesses has taught him one thing — the intent and aggression should always be pre-meditated if one wants to unsettle the opposition. “My 84 Test matches have always been about pre-meditated attacks and it doesn’t change for me but it’s about how the team looks at it. When I talk about intent, I mean by putting pressure back on the bowlers not just by swinging the bat. “There are other ways of showing intent which could lead them into bowling those odd full-pitched balls and short of length balls which you can pull or cut. That’s what I talk about when I talk about putting pressure on bowlers. “It’s about going out there and playing your shots,” said the man, who has 7244 runs and 24 hundreds in 84 games. What Warner has observed is that both Indian and Australian batsmen, for the better part, have allowed rival bowlers to gain the upper-hand.
