IPL Nets Give New Star Inside Track On Smith –Coach

TWENTY20 and Test cricket may be poles apart in terms of format – but Rajasthan Royals’ coach Paddy Upton has seen enough of Jofra Archer to convince him that he can be as successful in the longer format as he has been in cricket’s shortest.

- Richard Edwards

And he might also have a trick or two stored up for when he takes on his IPL colleague Steve Smith in the coming months and beyond.

Archer and Smith came up against each other enough times in the nets for both to eye potential weaknesses.

There has been precious little evidence of any in Smith’s armoury so far this summer, but Upton is in no doubt that Archer is better placed than most to deliver a searching examination of his idiosyncratic technique.

“Tactically, in terms of how he (Archer) goes about bowling an over, he just seems to have a really good cricket brain,” he says.

“In one-day cricket, every ball counts but Test cricket is about being a bit more strategic in the course of a spell.

“How he stacks up a five or six-over spell is something we haven’t seen yet. But he has an amazing ability to understand what ball to bowl next. He’s not someone who randomly makes a decision at the top of his mark. If that translates, he’s going to be a handful for the Aussie batters.”