World Cup 2019: Australia vs Afghanistan - 5 players to look out for

#3 Steve Smith

Steve Smith

Steve Smith’s technique has been labeled as unorthodox in the past, but it has clearly worked for him as he has now scored almost 10,000 international runs, with 31 centuries, leading up to March 2018. He was then banned for a year, as he was part of the same scandal as David Warner, and his career seemed to be over.

Move onto May 2019 and Smith is in splendid form. He has hit three successive half-centuries and a century since his return (albeit in warm-up matches) and is set to bat at number four against Afghanistan on 1 June.

The 29-year-old will look to keep the scoreboard ticking over in the middle-overs, before accelerating later on. The rest of the batting order can bat around Smith. The ideal situation is to have wickets in hand so that the likes of Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell can wreak havoc in the final 10 overs of Australia’s innings.