After England and West Indies, elite Australian players resumed training on Monday at the Sydney Olympic Park. Steve Smith, who returned to training after a two month long hiatus in cricket activities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, claimed that a switch to physical and mental fitness during the lockdown has been refreshing.
“I’ve just tried to switch off it for a bit, which I don’t do very often, so just focusing on getting myself fit and strong and refreshing mentally,” cricket.com.au quoted Steve Smith as saying.
According to a report by PTI, David Warner and Mitchell Starc were among those who reported for training as the domestic pre-season began behind closed doors.
Notably, Australian summer is set to start with ODI series against Zimbabwe schedule to begin on August 9 while the longest format battlefield will witness its first match against Afghanistan in November.
I’ll be good to go
One of the modern day batting greats, Steve Smith, said he would ‘need just a couple of weeks’ to be ready for the international matches, reported Cricket.com.au.
Adding further he said though he didn’t touched the bat for a while, he would be good to go.
“I haven’t touched a bat, really, just a couple of little drills at home but that’s about it. When we get our chance to play again I’ll be good to go.”
Players will have to help each other
Amid the testing conditions when boards are financially affected since the COVID-19 brought the game to a standstill, Steve Smith said players will have to adapt the situation.
“If that’s the case, it’ll be about guys being able to help each other out as well, particularly senior players being able to take a bit of time off your own game and help someone else out at training or something like that,” PTI quoted Steve Smith as saying.
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