In the 1st Test, England tried getting Steve Smith out in the slip and gully region, a strategy established repeatedly in the English summer.
According to Sachin, in order to tackle the nagging off-stump line, Smith shuffled across and exposed his leg-stump and in that process, he also covered the line of off-stump. With the complete knowledge where his off-stump was, he left the ball and was smart enough in his shot selection.
Moving on to the Lord’s Test, England planned to have a leg slip for him. Sachin’s understanding of Smith’s troubled stay during Jofra Archer’s spell was his movement towards the off-stump with his weight going backwards. He tried to defend a barrage of short stuff from Archer, and got into bad positions and henceforth got hit on the head. According to Sachin the most important aspect for a batsman is to keep the head and his body weight marginally forward or at least in line of the ball.
So Smith went back, worked on his technique and stopped exposing his leg stump when there was a leg slip in place. He kept his front foot in tact while shuffling towards the off-stump, and got on top of the ball. In that process, he remembered to guard his leg stump.
In the 4th and 5th Ashes Test, instead of pulling his weight backwards, he started to duck under the ball with his head forward and was quite successful.
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