Somerset takes a dig at Steve Smith by calling Jack Leach greatest batsman of this generation

Former Australia captain Steve Smith has made a phenomenal return to Test cricket following his year-long ban in the ongoing Ashes. With an innings still to go, the 30-year-old has slammed 751 runs in four Tests but yet, his heroics haven’t earned him many friends in England. A number of former cricketers persisted with the opinion that Smith is still a cheat, recalling the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa last year. And now, English county club Somerset has also poked fun at him.

He slammed 80 in the first innings of the final match at The Oval on Friday even as Australia failed to take a lead. In response to England’s 294, the Kangaroos’ batting performance did not inspire much and they were all out for 226 in the face of some fiery pace from Jofra Archer (six for 62).

Steve Smith has scored a hundred or fifty each time he has gone out to bat in this series with the highest of 211 made in the fourth Test at Old Trafford last week. Australia won that match by 185 runs to retain the Ashes. They have also ensured that they would not lose a series in England after 18 years.

But English cricket supporters have not stopped taunting him. Somerset tweeted a picture on Friday showing Smith with Jack Leach, England’s tail-ending batsman who has shown tremendous resilience with the bat this series, to caption it: “One of the greatest batsmen of this generation having a chat with Steve Smith at the Oval this evening.”

📸 One of the greatest batsmen of this generation having a chat with Steve Smith at the Oval this evening #WeAreSomerset pic.twitter.com/URJFpcWpXv

— Somerset Cricket 🏏 (@SomersetCCC) September 12, 2019

Smith’s celebration wearing glasses at Old Trafford didn’t impress England fans

Steve Smith hogged the headlines apart from his match-winning batting show in Manchester when he had donned a pair of spectacles after the match, apparently to ape Leach. The England cricketer became a hero overnight when he had put up an unbeaten partnership of 76 runs with Ben Stokes in the second Test at Leeds last month to level the series 1-1. He also came up with a similar resistance at Old Trafford with a 51-ball 12 and in the first innings at the Oval too with 21 off 43 that helped England to reach a respectable total.

Smith’s celebration with the glasses didn’t go down well with the home fans and media and they slammed him accusing him of disrespecting Leach. To draw a similar example, the International Cricket Council (ICC) faced the wrath of the Indian fans after it suggested Ben Stokes as the world’s greatest cricketer even as former great Sachin Tendulkar co-existed in the picture that the ICC used to drive home its message.

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