Steve Smith reveals how he deals with negativity and shuts out noise
Prolific Australian batter Steve Smith has stated that he believes in performing out in the middle to shut out any negativity and noise surrounding his game.
Steve Smith pulled out of Australia’s tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh due to an elbow injury. In fact, he revealed last month that he played the first half of IPL 2021 with the injury, which got worse as the season progressed.
On his YouTube channel ‘Steve Smith Cricket Academy,’ the Aussie batter opened up on how he deals with the mental aspect of cricket.
He stated that it’s important to be able to harness the outside noise, positive or negative, and use it to your advantage.
"We play to entertain. One thing I have learnt is how many voices and opinions there are in this space. It is about how to manage and use them to your advantage as much as possible.
"The way I deal with negative commentary or media or noise is to go out there and perform and do the best that I can. I guess you can say that it is about just letting the bat doing the talking.
"Occasionally, opposition players try to get into your head. The most important thing from my point of view is to just let it go, ignore it and focus on that next ball."
Describing cricket as a mental game, Steve Smith concluded:
"Those that make the most consistent decisions are the most successful."
Steve Smith ready to skip T20 World Cup for Ashes
Considering Australia’s recent struggles in the T20 format, the team think-tank will be desperate to have Steve Smith in the mix for the T20 World Cup, which will be held in October-November.
However, the experienced batter’s availability for the mega tournament is in doubt due to his fitness issues.
Speaking to cricket.com.au last month, Steve Smith said that he is willing to skip the T20 World Cup if the need arises as the Ashes is his priority. He was quoted as saying:
"There’s still a bit of time between now and [the T20 World Cup], and I’m tracking okay at the moment it’s slow, but I’m going okay. I’d love to be part of the World Cup, for sure, but from my point of view, Test cricket, that’s my main goal to be right for the Ashes and try to emulate what I’ve done in the last few Ashes series I’ve been involved in."
The 32-year-old has 7540 runs to his name from 77 Tests and 4378 runs in 128 ODIs. He has also scored 794 runs in 45 T20Is.