quincywagstaff
International Debutant
I don't know where I read it but someone observed that Laubschagne's performances at 3 this summer meant that Smith became far less essential to the side than he had been for years and I wonder whether mentally that impacted his game a bit. As the Ashes showed I reckon he's someone who relishes situations where expectations and pressure are at their peak and with Labuschagne doing the hard yards every innings this summer (plus Warner against Pakistan) it's probably not that surprising that he mentally wasn't at his peak.