Steve Smith Reveals Bizarre Superstition He Cannot Overcome: ‘I’ve Always Struggled’ | Cricket News

Steve Smith will return to action next week. (AFP Photo)

Steve Smith isn’t just one for strange antics at the crease. He also has peculiar superstitions.

The Australian batting great revealed one such bizarre superstition of his whenever he prepares for a Test match.

Speaking with England legend Kevin Pietersen, Smith opened up on how he struggles to sleep until he has batted in the first innings of a Test.

“I’d probably struggle (to sleep) until I’ve batted in the first innings and then I’m pretty chilled. Even if I go out and face like five balls in the first innings and it’s the end of the night or something like that, I’d be fine. But until I’ve actually gone out and played that first innings, I don’t know. I just, I’ve always struggled,” Smith told Pietersen.

Upon Smith’s revelation, Pietersen wondered if it were his pre-match nerves that still got the better of one of Test cricket’s finest ever performers.

The former English cricketer then pointed towards the several anecdotes he’s heard about Smith, including the fact that the unorthodox right-hander shadow bats extensively in his room.

Smith said he likes to visualise the challenge ahead.

“No, it’s excitement (not nerves). I’ve kind of always used that time to visualise… yeah, I do some shadow batting. Some, not as much as I used to, but most of my visualisation happens when I should be sleeping,” Smith said.

“So, you know, it’s probably not something you’d say is normal or something you’d tell people to do. But that’s where that’s where I do my visualisation and once I get out there and start playing, then I’m good and I’ll sleep after that.”

Smith though feels he’s not too superstitious. “I’m not too superstitious, you know? I tie my shoelaces to my socks. That’s about, you know, the extent of it,” he said.

Pietersen disagreed and came up with an inside story on how once former wicketkeeper-batter Brad Haddin had to keep giving Smith throwdowns after he scored a century.

“Then he (Haddin) had to keep throwing balls to you every morning,” Pietersen told Smith. “You would search for him every morning. But he did say that if you scored a hundred after hundred after hundred, he’s happy to keep bowling to you.”

Smith recalled, “It was against India (during 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy). Start of the summer. I hit four hundreds in four Test matches. So I was locked away and he had to keep throwing to me.”