Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar on Sunday slammed England fast bowler Jofra Archer for walking away and not checking up on Australian batsman Steve Smith after hitting him with a bouncer during the second Ashes Test between the two sides at Lord's.
The former Australian skipper was batting at 80 from 152 balls during his side's first innings of the match on Day 4 when he got a striking blow on the back of his neck by a bouncer bowled by Test debutant Jofra Archer. He immediately fell down on the ground following a blow before being attended by the physios of the two sides.
Subsequently, he retired hurt and was sent for the concussion test.
Steve Smith is up, and looks OK — thank heavens — but he won’t bat on. Walking off with the doctor. It doesn’t get much scarier than that. A standing ovation from the entire Lord’s crowd. Brutal battle. #Ashes pic.twitter.com/FCGPNiIWT0
— Sam Landsberger (@SamLandsberger) August 17, 2019
A day after the incident, the Rawalpindi Express took to his official Twitter handle and criticised Archer for showing lack of courtesy after flooring Smith. He further pointed out that he was always the first one to rush to the batsman whenever such kind of incident occured during his playing days.
“Bouncers are a part & parcel of the game but whenever a bowler hits a batsman on the head and he falls, courtesy requires that the bowler must go & check on him. It was not nice of Archer to just walk away while Smith was in pain. I was always the first one to run to the batsman,” Akhtar wrote.
Bouncers are a part & parcel of the game but whenever a bowler hits a batsman on the head and he falls, courtesy requires that the bowler must go & check on him. It was not nice of Archer to just walk away while Smith was in pain. I was always the first one to run to the batsman.
— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) August 18, 2019
After some time, Smith made his way back to the field and went on to play a blistering knock of 92 runs to guide Australia to a score of 250 in reply to England's first innings total of 258. He was, however, ruled out of the remainder of the Test.
Earlier, Smith became only the fifth Australian batsman to notch up tons in both innings of an Ashes Test when he scored 144 and 142 runs in the two innings of the opening Test in Birmingham.
Besides this, Smith also added another feather on his cap by surpassing Indian skipper Virat Kohli to become the second-fastest batsman to register 25 Test centuries.
