Smith takes stand on being stern, but not "Captain Grumpy"

Steve Smith is not afraid to take a hard stand as a captain

Steve Smith, the youngest Test Captain of Australia since Kim Hughes has decided that he will take the role of a stern dictator if needed. He won’t back out from a little trash talk if needed in the current test match. Steve Smith feels that he will take up the role of being a hard-shell, if required. We have already seen the captain take stand in the ‘Starc situation’

Smith was in the news because of the recent incident where Mitchell Starc was involved. Starc threw the ball towards Mark Craig, in what was a foolish attempt to sledge the batsman by Starc, was duly noted by the Australian captain who later described the incident as, “unnecessary and disappointing”.

Starc’s behaviour and frustration led Smith to take the press sternly and say that he would “have a talk” with his teammate following the incident. Smith said, “I guess (setting a standard) is pretty important. As I said last week, I was pretty disappointed with Starc's actions out on the field. I had a chat to him and he responded really well, so hopefully he doesn't do that again."

Smith’s decision to walk to the press and speak about the incident was a little bitter but, was praised by his coach. Lehmann was happy with the way Smith took an immediate action towards Starc’s behaviour.

Lehmann said that every captain his own style and he is really impressed by the way Smith is taking care of the team. He said, “That’s what you want from all your captains,” Lehmann said.

“Michael (Clarke) was the same, and Ricky (Ponting) was the same, (Mark) Taylor – all of them jump on things that they think are important to their side, and we fully support that. The way (Smith) goes about it is different, but every captain is different. But I’m really impressed with the way he’s been going about it, full stop,” he continued.

Smith was ready to take the role of a hard-nosed captain if need but denied of himself being tagged as “captain grumpy”.

“I don't think I am that grumpy,” he said with a grin, before adding that he was prepared to offer a stern word "if it is needed". (But) I think everyone has responded really well to me taking over this side. It has been a nice, smooth transition and I am feeling really good about my game as well. After last week, everything is good. (But) we have got a bit of improvement to do this week.”

Smith said that the team needed improvement even after thumping the Black Caps by 208 runs in the first test match. Smith was unhappy with the fielding standards and said that’s where they needed to improve after they dropped 4 catches at the Gabba.

We set ourselves really high standards in the field and we let ourselves down a little bit in that department (in the first Test)," Smith added. “So that’s something we’re going to be working on.”

“This is one of the best places in the world to field in the slips – you get a lot of time to see the ball because you’re generally quite deep, so hopefully we can hold our catches this match.”

"And with our bowling … our lengths were a little bit too short with the new ball in Brisbane. The guys found it quite hard from both ends because the wickets was a bit more raised than it normally is, so guys were finding it hard to find their rhythm. I don’t think they’ll have that problem out here so hopefully they can get their lengths right from ball one. I think the conditions here are going to suit our bowlers really well."

With the 26-year-old leading the Aussies to a victory in the first test match, we believe that his philosophy as a captain of being stern and a hard-shell is working good enough for his team.