Steve Smith credits Tennis for his improved gameplay

The Australian star cricketer, Steve Smith regained his form with back-to-back Centuries in the ongoing Big Bash League. Not only he scored runs but also ensured a solid start for his team, Sydney Sixers. Moreover, on several occassions, he has played some orthodox shots which makes him a unique batter.

Interestingly enough, Smudge’s love for Tennis is quite well known. He has been a huge fan of the game for a long time and even in his batting style. At times the kind of shots he hits to bowlers, they do seem to resemble some lawn tennis shots to a large extent.

Therefore, Steve Smith has given credit to the sport of Tennis in helping him a great manifold in improving his game in Cricket. Smudge revealed some interesting relation between his style of batting and Tennis.

Western grip to Continental grip: How Steve Smith is modifying his batting dynamics

“I was probably actually holding the bat how I hold my tennis racket before”, the 33-year-old said at the SCG. The right-handed batter went on to elaborate and elucidate in detail, how he has thoroughly gotten into changing the grips of his fists around the handle of the bat, from a more top-spinning ‘western’ grip to a more liberal ‘eastern’ or ‘continental’ grip. These are terms which are associated primarily with the game of Tennis.

“I don’t know what it’s called, the western grip maybe with my right hand. But I’ve opened that up to what’s called a continental grip maybe … a bit more open, just allowing me to slice the ball and hit gaps and hit the ball further. It just opens my bat face a bit. If you look at some of my footage from 12 months ago … four or five years probably, during that period I was quite closed with my face, which probably didn’t enable me to hit the ball as big”, Smudge added.

Such of Smith’s batting dynamics and it’s explanation arises after the batter exuded some immense barnstorming in the ongoing BBL. An unbeaten 125 from 66 balls came from Smith’s bat for the Sixers against the Thunder despite a sluggish pitch. The 33-year-old has already struck two consecutive centuries and also became the first centurion for the Sixers in the history.

Smith is satisfied that he has just in time changed his batting grip, as he believes this has aided his batting performance a lot and also allowed him to spend more time at the crease and score those big runs.

“I was probably top spinning it, as opposed to back spinning it and letting the ball go up and away further. I thought I back spun a couple of nice ones tonight. The ball just travels a lot better when you do that. It’s been a nice adjustment for me, I feel like I’m batting well in all forms of the game. Hopefully I can continue scoring some runs and helping firstly the Sixers and then the Aussies after that”, Smith concluded.