Steve Smith Set To Play Ashes Test With Black Tape On Cheeks! What Does It Do? | Cricket News

Steve Smith batting with black tape under his eyes.

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Australia’s stand-in captain Steven Smith is set to bat in the second Test of the 2025-26 Ashes with pieces of black tape under his eyes. The strategy is common in American Football and has been deployed in cricket before by West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul to counter the glare on the leather ball.

Black color absorbs the most light. In theory, these pieces of tape should help the batter’s vision in spotting the leather ball by offsetting some of that glare reflecting from their cheeks.

While Chanderpaul used it often, Smith is set to bring it for the pink-ball Test. The day-night game will be played with pink leather, with half of the day’s play to be under floodlights.

Many batters, including Smith, have previously complained about how the glare is even brighter with the pink ball, making it extra challenging for batters.

“The pink ball in general is just a completely different game,” Smith said in July. “Personally, I find it quite tricky just picking the ball up at certain times of the day and things like that, and the way it behaves is completely different to a red one. I think people like the spectacle. But as a player, particularly as a batter, it’s very challenging. The game can so quickly, and things change really quickly, which you probably don’t get so much with a red ball. But yeah, people like watching it, I suppose, so I guess it’s here to stay.”

Alastair Cook, the former England captain, once said that the floodlights’ reflection on the pink section of the ball makes it difficult to spot the black seam, which is colored white for the red cherry.

Chanderpaul certainly felt the tape was helpful.

“I always used it whenever it was very glary,” he told Gulf News in a 2018 interview. “I stick them on and it does help take 60-70 percent of the glare off my eyes, and that was good for me.”