Steven Smith did not have a good time with the bat in his first series as Australian ODI skipper.
Although, he scored 70 in one of the games, but, it turned out to be a pretty mediocre series for him as a batsman.
However, he would be quite happy that he managed to guide the Kangaroos to a 3-2 series win.
It was quite a tough series for Smith. He had to take a lot of flak for appealing against Ben Stokes for obstructing the field dismissal and thereafter, denying the request of the England captain Eoin Morgan of withdrawing the appeal in the second match.
Many people were of the view that Stokes had not wilfully tried to touch the ball and stop it from going onto the stumps. Whatever he did was just for his self defence and thus, Smith should have understood the situation and withdrawn the appeal.
It was even said that Smith’s act was against the spirit of the game and he should regret it in a few years’ time.
But, Smith did not lose his calmness following that controversy and managed to make sure that Australia won one more game and get the series’ outcome in their favour.
He showed a few signs of frustration in the third and the fourth games when the Aussies were struggling a little bit, but, that was understandable from a young captain being desperate to make a mark in his first series in charge.
However, the way the 26-year old captained in the decider at Old Trafford, it was absolutely impeccable. His move to give the new ball to John Hastings, when almost everyone else thought that the New South Wales speedster Pat Cummins would be a better choice, paid great dividends.
Hastings rocked the England top order with his controlled seam bowling and handed Australia early advantage.