Australia’s stand-in captain Steve Smith has been seen sporting the anti-glare black strips which were almost trademark for West Indies legend Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Smith batted in the nets with anti-glare strips ahead of the pink-ball Test at The Gabba, Brisbane. In the pre-match press conference, Smith revealed that he messaged Chanderpaul about it who told him that he is wearing them the wrong way.
"I actually messaged Shivnarine Chanderpaul and asked him what his thoughts were, whether he wore the chalk or the strips," Smith told the reporters on December 3. "He said the strips, and he thinks it blocks out 65% of the glare. And he also said, 'I've seen photos and you're wearing them the wrong way'. So yesterday I put them on the right way.
"I agree with him. I think it certainly stops the glare. Yeah, I'll be wearing them."
Smith intends to block the glare from floodlights during day/night Test, a practice common in various American sports as the strips absorb the light.
Smith not a fan of pink-ball Tests
Smith is the second on the list of leading run-scorers in pink-ball Tests but he does not enjoy it.
"It's hard to bat all the time," he said about the stark difference of batting in the daylight and under floodlights. "It's a tricky one. The ball reacts obviously differently to a red one. It can change quickly. It can start moving randomly.
"You've got to try and play what's in front of you at that time and when it does shift on you and the ball starts doing something different, you've got to try and come up with plans to counter that, whether it be more aggressive, whether it be going to your shell and trying to get through that period. Everyone's different. It's trying to be one step ahead when it does start to shift."
Smith’s pink-ball Test numbers
The 36-year-old has scored 815 runs from 13 pink-ball Tests at an average of 37.04. He has one century and five fifties in the newer version of Test.