Smith calls on Australia to rectify batting collapses

Steven Smith wasn't getting carried away by Australia's win in the second and final Test against Bangladesh, shedding light instead on the increasing frequency of batting collapses for his team and urging that it be rectified.

Despite the efforts of David Warner (123), Peter Hansdcomb (82) and Smith (58) himself in the first innings in Chittagong, Australia lost its last seven wickets for just 79 runs.

"I still think we have a lot of improvement in us," said Smith after Australia slipped to fifth place in the International Cricket Council Test rankings despite the seven-wicket win on Thursday. "We probably let ourselves down at times throughout this Test match. I thought our first-innings bowling was very good to restrict them. Our first-innings batting, obviously the partnership between 'Petey' (Handscomb) and 'Davey' (Warner) was fantastic.

"And then we got ourselves into one of our collapses that we've had. I think we've had 15 collapses in our last 14 games, our analyst told me yesterday. That's not good enough for an Australian cricket team. That's something we really need to work on. We need to rectify that come the next series and the Ashes.

“Losing seven or eight for a 100 or a bit more, that’s a pretty reasonable collapse and if you do that on regular occurrences, you’re not going to win a lot of cricket games. It’s something we need to work on."

Eventually, Nathan Lyon's match haul of 13 for 154 helped Australia level the series despite the batting collapse, but in the first Test, the team lost 4 for 24 (first innings) and 8 for 86 (second innings) in Dhaka as Bangladesh marched to a first-ever win against Australia.

Smith said the issue was more mental than technical. "I'd say that probably 95 per cent of batting is mental and decision-making," he offered. "I think unfortunately we've probably been making the wrong decisions and getting ourselves in some trouble.

"I don't think it's technical a lot of the time. Guys just have to make better decisions consistently and hopefully be able to build some partnerships in the middle. We've got off to some pretty good starts quite a lot of times and then the collapse starts. We have to find ways to work with your partner out there and get another partnership going and stop the rut as such. It's on each individual and the batsmen that are out there to do that and do that for the team."

Warner, who has struggled to get going in the subcontinent in the past, piled up 251 runs in two Tests including two gritty centuries, and Smith was all praise for the left-handed opener.

"I thought Davey was magnificent," he gushed. "After the first innings (in Dhaka, where he was out for eight) he changed his game and found a style to play in these conditions. And the energy in his feet and the way he used his feet were spectacular. Hopefully, he can continue to do that in these conditions and continue to dominate."

Australia will now fly to India where it will play a warm-up game in Chennai on September 12, followed by five One-Day Internationals, starting from September 17, and three Twenty20 Internationals.