“I’ve had a bit of vertigo the last day, so it’s been a bit annoying,” Smith said before training at Wankhede. “Hopefully I can finish training today and be okay. But yeah, it’s not a nice place to be. From time to time, I’ve had some episodes.” [before]so I can tell you it’s not the most fun space to be in, but yeah, I’ll go out and have a drink. [in the nets] And hopefully he’ll be fine and we’ll see how it goes.”
Asked if the problem would put him in doubt for Australia’s eighth league stage match with his place in the semi-finals not yet confirmed, Smith said: “No, I think I’ll be fine. Yeah, I’m not feeling very good. “For now, I’ll take a swing and see how we go, so I hope everything is okay.”
Shortly after the press conference, Smith went on to bat in the nets without any visible discomfort initially. He began by facing some tackles from Australia’s support staff before taking a short break, during which he batted behind the nets. He soon returned to facing more takedowns, while rotating in the nets with Glenn Maxwell, and showed off his trademark striking that included flicks and drives. He also went down the track while unleashing some elevated drives.
Smith then switched to the other nets, where he only faced various types of local spinners for a long period to prepare for the possible threat that Afghanistan’s spin attack could pose. Later, however, he began to look quite unwell and was on all fours behind the nets while he was still padded and was also seen holding his head in apparent pain as he lay down on the ground. He soon left the field with one of the support staff while his teammates continued hitting the nets.*
“Yeah, it’s been a little disappointing at times,” he said. “I’ve been in the middle of some partnerships which have certainly helped me build a foundation, but yeah, I definitely would have liked to have continued with this a little bit longer. I’ve gone into some difficult surfaces, obviously. The first one against India was tough, the from South Africa where I felt I was batting well, kind of a questionable weight and then I got a good one early, I guess, against Sri Lanka.
“I was batting very well against Holland and then I batted reasonably the other day against England. So yeah, a couple of starts where I would have liked to continue a little bit more, but it didn’t happen that way. But I still feel like I’m hitting the ball quite a bit.” well, so I’m hoping for some runs at the end of the tournament.”
*This story was updated after Smith’s latest posts on the networks.
