Steve Smith calls James Anderson one of the biggest sledgers

The Ashes contest is heating up as Australian skipper Steve Smith has now counter-attacked pacer James Anderson. Responding to the ‘bully’ comment made by Anderson, Smith said that the England bowler is one of the biggest sledgers in the game of cricket. Anderson has a history of verbal spats with former Aussie players and Smith didn’t hold back much.

England skipper Joe Root had expressed his displeasure at the ‘head-butt’ incident involving Cameron Bancroft and Jonny Bairstow. Root said that the incident was blown out of proportion but that is something which he expects from the Australians.

“I read the article. I think it’s interesting coming from Jimmy calling us bullies and big sledgers. I think he’s one of the biggest sledgers in the game to be perfectly honest with you. I remember back in 2010 when I first started and wasn’t any good, he was pretty happy to get stuck into me then. Interesting coming from Jimmy,” said Smith.

At the post-match conference, where Smith had a hearty laugh, the skipper said “I certainly wasn’t mocking his team. I was laughing at Cameron and the way he delivered the events of what had happened. He was very dry and different in the way things came across. You guys got a good laugh out of it as much as I did. I’m happy to clarify that with Joe Root, no problem there at all.”

Smith is confident of repeating a similar performance under lights. The right-hand batsman scored a match-winning 141 in the first innings and helped his side get to a winning position. “You’re only as good as your last game. I out-performed them last game, there’s no doubt they’ll come out hard again. They’re good bowlers, they’ve got good skills. As a collective batting group we’ll have to be at our best to score runs against them.” Smith said.