{"id":297118,"date":"2025-11-20T13:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T13:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/297118\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T13:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T13:32:08","slug":"steve-smith-responds-to-monty-panesars-sandpaper-sledge-strategy-with-mastermind-jab-ashes-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/297118\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Smith Responds To Monty Panesar’s Sandpaper Sledge Strategy With ‘Mastermind’ Jab | Ashes 2025\/26"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Smith <\/p>\n

Monty Panesar<\/a> had suggested England targeting Steve Smith<\/a> with Sandpapergate jibes during the 2025\/26 Ashes. Smith responded to these suggestions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake him doubt himself\u201d <\/p>\n

In the absence of the injured Pat Cummins, Smith will lead Australia in the first Test match of the 2025\/26 Ashes. Ahead of the series, Panesar had some suggestions for the England team<\/a>: \u201cBen Stokes and the England team have got to make Steve Smith feel guilty and play on that. Tell him he hasn\u2019t played the game fairly \u2026 Make him doubt himself.\u201d <\/p>\n

He added that if the English bowlers swung the ball, their teammates should joke about them being unable to do that without \u201cusing sandpaper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panesar was referring to the 2018\/19 Cape Town ball-tampering scandal<\/a> that led to bans for Smith, the captain of the Australian side, along with vice-captain David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.<\/p>\n

Panesar also expected the British media to get behind the team in this: \u201cIf the roles were reversed, Australian media would be all over it. This is where the British press must help England.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t really bother me\u201d <\/p>\n

Smith was asked about Panesar\u2019s comments in a pre-series press conference. In response, he referred to Panesar\u2019s \u201cpretty comical\u201d gaffes at an episode of the ‘Mastermind’ quiz show, recalling specifically the errors that attained cult status over time (Panesar mentioned that Athens was in Germany, Oliver Twist was a season of the year, and America was a city).<\/p>\n

Once done, Smith added: \u201cSo, it doesn\u2019t really bother me, those comments. Yeah, that\u2019s as far as I\u2019ll go with that one.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The first Test of the 2025\/26 Ashes begins on November 21, at the Perth Stadium.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Monty PanesarSteven SmithCover Stories AsiaCover Stories UKSteve SmithCover Stories IndiaSeries Cover Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monty Panesar had suggested England targeting Steve Smith with Sandpapergate jibes during the 2025\/26 Ashes. Smith responded to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-297118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}