Steve Smith Sends Ashes Warning To England Batters: They're Going to Be Challenged Differently...

The pitches in the England-India clash have been pretty flat, and as a result, both teams have been able to score 400 or more quite consistently. However, former Australia skipper Steve Smith has issued a warning to England ahead of the Ashes later this year Down Under, telling them to get comfortable with such tracks, as the ones in Australia will be more challenging. 

"Their [England] batters are going to be challenged a little bit differently to the wickets they have had over in England for a while, which have looked pretty flat and good for batting," Smith was quoted as saying by BBC Sport, as reported by Deccan Herald.

"The wickets in Australia in the last three or four years have been very tricky for top-order batters. It is going to be a good challenge for them. But it's going to be a wonderful series."

Smith, who is currently in England to lead the Welsh Fire in The Hundred, says that he has been keeping an eye on the series between India and England and believes that the Ashes will be an excellent contest.

"I have been watching the India and England series and there has been some great cricket played there, so I think the Ashes this year is going to be an absolute belter," he said.

Smith also observes that England have shunned playing entertaining cricket and are more focused on winning matches. 

"They have started to play a little bit differently in the last couple of weeks in terms of playing the situation, as opposed to going out and trying to be the entertainers that they said they wanted to be," Smith said. 

"They are actually trying to win the games now, which is perhaps different to what was said in their comments previously."

Smith recently retired from One-Day Internationals (ODI) following Australia's Champions Trophy 2025 exit. He is now focused on T20s and Tests.

He intends to continue playing T20 leagues in order to represent his country in the Olympics in 2028. "I decided to stop playing one-day cricket so I can play more franchises, with the aim to make the Olympic team," Smith said.

"So to play more shorter-form tournaments around the world is only going to be beneficial. It has been a long run for me, and I have been doing this for a long time. I am still enjoying it and particularly the shorter formats and want to keep putting my name out there."

Smith has played 356 matches for Australia across formats and has 17,371 runs to his name. Only Ricky Ponting, Allan Border, David Warner and Steve Waugh have scored more runs for Australia than him.