{"id":256231,"date":"2025-11-11T05:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T05:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/256231\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T05:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T05:15:07","slug":"ashes-2025-26-australias-steve-smith-told-to-expect-bodyline-from-england-fast-bowlers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/256231\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashes 2025-26: Australia’s Steve Smith told to expect ‘Bodyline’ from England fast bowlers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia batter Steve Smith has been warned to expect Bodyline bowling from England’s pace attack in the forthcoming Ashes.<\/p>\n

Former Australia opener Simon Katich has predicted England coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes will deploy an approach akin to the controversial tactics to unsettle the 36-year-old.<\/p>\n

Smith has scored 3,417 runs in 37 Tests against England at an average of 56.01, including 12 centuries and is seen as a pivotal player for Australia.<\/p>\n

“They [Stokes and McCullum] will have seen what the New Zealand did to Steve Smith a few years ago so successfully in Australia,” Katich told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Ashes preview show.<\/a><\/p>\n

“I would be surprised if that wasn’t the same plan. As soon as Steve Smith came to the crease there were fielders scattered everywhere. I hate to use the word ‘Bodyline’ but that’s exactly what it was, really.”<\/p>\n

In the 2019 Ashes, England fast bowler Jofra Archer hit Smith on the helmet with a 92mph bouncer<\/a> during the Lord’s Test, which resulted in Marnus Labuschagne becoming Test cricket’s first concussion substitute.<\/p>\n

Smith subsequently missed the next Test at Headingley through concussion.<\/p>\n

“Neil Wagner executed it [for New Zealand] and went hard from the word go. Albeit not the same pace as England have got up their sleeves,” added Katich, who played 56 Tests and 45 one-day internationals for Australia.<\/p>\n

“I’d be very surprised if that doesn’t hit Steve Smith and maybe other Australian batters who are later in the careers in the next few weeks.”<\/p>\n

England won the Ashes in Australia in 1932-33 under the captaincy of Douglas Jardine using bowling tactics which targeted a batter’s body with short-pitched deliveries known as fast leg theory but coined as Bodyline.<\/a><\/p>\n

The approach led to ill feeling between England and Australia and prompted a change to the laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia batter Steve Smith has been warned to expect Bodyline bowling from England’s pace attack in the forthcoming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-256231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}