Let’s get loud, says captain Steven Smith

An Australian Test team described as quiet? No, really.

Australia’s captain Steven Smith has demanded his players find their voices and energy in the lead-up to the home summer, having pinpointed a flat and uninspiring on-field attitude as one of the reasons for the team’s recent defeat in Sri Lanka.

There was a marked contrast between the lack of assertiveness shown during those matches after the second day of the series, and the more aggressive posture of the limited-overs teams that won 50-over and Twenty20 contests in the aftermath of the Tests.

Rested after the second ODI, Smith watched on television from his home in Sydney as the vice-captain David Warner led a far more demonstrative effort. Smith wants that to be the template for the way the Test players carry themselves in future, indicating that a more boisterous, aggressive attitude is critical to the way Australia play their best cricket.

“I thought his energy was magnificent throughout those games and looking forward that’s the sort of energy we want from him and all of the other senior players,” Smith said of Warner, in Sydney ahead of the ODI team’s departure for South Africa, where they will also play a match against Ireland. “We’ve got a pretty quiet group and we need …

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