England spearhead Jimmy Anderson has resumed his slanging match with Steve Smith, saying Australia’s skipper was more interested in sledging than talking shop with his batting partner at Adelaide Oval.
Anderson and Smith have been swapping barbs – on the field and off it – throughout this Ashes series.
England’s all-time leading wicket-taker claimed Australia were bullies prior to the second Test, a word that shocked Smith given Anderson is “one of the biggest sledgers in the game … to me in particular”.
The pair were involved in a handful of heated moments during the day-night Test in Adelaide, where Smith scored 40 and six.
Smith suggested Anderson’s verbals only served to sharpen his focus at the crease but Anderson rebuffed that claim in his newspaper column.
“We tried to get in Steve Smith’s bubble … we knew we were on top,” Anderson wrote in The Telegraph, recalling his stoush with Smith during Australia’s first innings at Adelaide Oval.
“We knew he was focusing on us because between overs he was supposed to go and talk to Usman Khawaja.
“He (Khawaja) was waiting for the chat from his captain but Smith ignored him and went back to his own end because he wanted to speak to us instead.
“I sensed he was more bothered about what Stuart (Broad) and I were saying to him, which was not very interesting.”
Anderson added that Smith “bats out of the box so you have to think out of the box”.
“Once you get him out a couple of times you realise he is not superhuman. You realise ‘I can bowl to this guy’ and that makes a big difference,” he wrote.
Accustomed to copping plenty of verbals from Australia during the Ashes, Anderson realises last weekend’s headlines have given them even more fodder.
Anderson had a drink poured on his head by England A batsman Ben Duckett last week.
It occurred the first night that England’s team management temporarily relaxed a midnight curfew, and at the same bar where Jonny Bairstow headbutted Cameron Bancroft during England’s first night on tour.
“I know Australia will use the Duckett incident as a way of goading us, or taking the mickey,” Anderson wrote, describing the episode as a silly non-event.
“It will probably be funnier than what they have spouted at me so far in this series.
“They jump on anything to have a go at you so I am expecting a bit of lip. I have no problem with that.”
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