How Switching To ‘T20 Grip’ Helped Injured Steve Smith Score Big In Grenada

Australia feared the worst when Steve Smith suffered a compound dislocation of the little finger on his right hand in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final against South Africa, but the injury ended up only keeping him out for a single game. Smith proved his batting fitness by hitting some balls in a baseball cage in New York, and then returned straight back into the starting XI.

He got uncharacteristically caught in the deep in the first innings early on, but was locked in come the second dig and compiled a flawless 71 on a batter’s graveyard to set up victory for the Kangaroos. It was Smith’s sixth 50-plus score in his last seven Tests (four centuries in them) and the knock was so good that Cameron Green described the 36-year-old to be batting on a ‘different surface’.

After the game, Smith revealed how, with an injured finger, he switched to his ‘T20 grip’ to succeed on a tricky Grenada surface.

"It was a little bit different (to normal) because I can't bend it really, it's stuck straight almost," Smith said of his finger after the game, reported cricket.com.au.

"But I felt good out there; I had to change a couple of things with my grip going from first innings to second innings with my finger, and it took me a little while to just get my placement.

"I hit the field a couple of times where I probably wouldn't have hit it normally, but after that, I started to feel good, and it was nice to contribute.

"I probably have to just use my top hand a little bit more than I normally would, but I can adapt to those things – it's almost my T20 grip that I'm using at the moment."

Smith ditched the trademark ‘back and across’ movement for the second innings, and he revealed that he altered his stance to cope with the extremely low bounce on the surface, where some balls came shin-high to the batter.

"I stayed a lot stiller, I was batting on middle stump and just trying to access the ball as much as possible and if one (delivery) shot low, try to get my bat jammed down on it," Smith explained.

"When I go across my stumps normally, that's when the bounce is pretty consistent and I can trust the balls aren't going to shoot (low).

"When the balls are shooting, I want to try and keep my bat as straight as possible and access that one as much as you can when it stays low.

"I got into a couple of good positions with ones that did shoot and got my bat underneath it … which I was happy with."

Smith and Australia will have five days off before the third Test in Jamaica, which will be a day-night fixture.