“He knows he’s one of the better players in the world at the moment”

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

Australia opener Chris Rogers has announced that “it’s scary to think how good” stand-in captain Steven Smith can become after he made an unbeaten 72 on the first day of the Boxing Day Test against India in Melbourne.

Smith’s knock helped his side end day one on 259/5 after they had slipped to 115/3 at one point.

“He is just growing day by day and it’s scary to think how good he can be,” Rogers said. “He knows he’s one of the better players in the world at the moment and he’s definitely one of an echelon of batsmen who go above and beyond.

“Someone [Shami] threw a ball back at him today [Friday] and he had the confidence to say a few words, so it looks as if he knows he belongs and it’s phenomenal to watch.”

After scoring his third successive half-century in the ongoing series, Rogers noted that he is ecstatic to have regained his touch with the bat.

However, he added that he has to start converting his half-centuries into triple figure scores if he wants to cement his place at the top of the order.

“As an opener you do the hard work and put yourself in a good position, so to get out was disappointing because I felt good, my feet were going and I had a real desire to get a big score,” he said. “I know it probably doesn’t seem like it but there are times it can be a little bit intimidating batting with Davey [Warner].

“He scores so quickly that you can look up and think: ‘I’m not scoring quick enough or I’m not being aggressive enough’.

“So at times I’ve probably got out trying to force it a little bit up the other end from Davey. Maybe it helps me just calm down a little bit after he gets out but it’s not a bad trait, I guess.”