Australia batter, Steve Smith has recently opened up in an interview about playing county cricket in England.
Apparently, the batting great wants to get acclimatized to the English conditions before the all-important World Test Championship.
Therefore, for this to happen, he has signed up to play a short stint with Sussex County in the County Championship Division Two.
Moreover, this is the same club for which Indian Test specialist, Cheteshwar Pujara also plays. Thus, Smith hopes to get some time with Pujara and learn from each other as well.
Furthermore, this is also the first time that modern cricket’s two great players will play alongside each other in the same club.
Additionally, Smith also wants to learn more about Pujara as a person apart from exchanging cricketing knowledge with him.
Says Smith,
The day I don’t want to keep getting better and learning is the day I would probably call it quits. I am keen to play with Puj (Pujara) as well. I have played against him a lot, seen him score a lot of runs against me. Hopefully, we can spend a bit of time together in the middle and learn more about each other.
Adding further, he says,
You are playing for the same team, have seen that for years playing the IPL. While you are playing with each other, you try as hard as you can to success as a team and we will take care of their rest later on.
Additionally, Smith did not shy away at all from mentioning his fellow Australian, Marnus Labuschagne who has signed up to play for Glamorgan in the tournament.
Therefore, Smith is really excited to be playing against him and says that Labuschagne will get him dismissed from his bowling.
Smith talks about the fun banter with Marnus Labuschagne
While Labuschagne is also excited about the tournament, the two teams of Sussex and Glamorgan will come face-to-face on the 18th of May.
Before that, Smith talked about the fun banter that he and Labuschagne will enjoy during the game.
There has been a bit of banter. He thinks he is going to get me out. We will see what happens. Maybe he will come into bowl when I come in. I am sure it would be good fun.
When asked about his experience in the tournament so far, Smith said,
It is nice to be here. I have always wanted to play county cricket and it is going to be my first time which is hard to believe.
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