London: Australia coach Justin Langer has said that Steve Smith’s twin centuries during the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston were on “another level.”
Earlier in the year Langer had said during Australia’s series defeat to India that Indian skipper Virat Kohli is the best in the world. Smith and Kohli are often pitted against each other in the stakes for the best Test batsman in the world and Langer said that on current form, Smith might just be ahead of his rival.
“I said during the summer that Virat Kohli is the best player I have ever seen but that [Smith’s knocks] is just another level,” Langer told ESPNCricinfo.
The Edgbaston Test was Smith’s first since serving out a year-long ban and Langer lauded him for the character he showed, particularly in the first innings when Smith shifting gears helped Australian recover from 122/8 to scoring 284. Smith was the last man to be dismissed.
“You have in different teams, different eras, great players but for someone like Smudge [Smith], who is averaging over 60 and the way he played in this innings with all the pressure and everything that is on him, it was not only great skill but enormous character, enormous courage, very brave, unbelievable concentration, unbelievable physical stamina, unbelievable mental stamina, all traits of great players,” said the former Australia opener who was part of the team that won the 2001 Ashes — the last time that Australia won it in England.