“Can Do Thumbs Up Together”: Venkatesh Prasad Trolls Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne In Epic Fashion

Steve Smith doing thumbs-up in Nagpur Test© Twitter

Australia couldn’t hit the ground running in the opening Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test against India in Nagpur, losing the match by an innings and 132 runs. There were huge expectations from the likes of Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and others but the star batters couldn’t step up to the task and deliver. In fact, Smith had even faced the wrath of Australia legend Allan Border for his on-field gestures during the Nagpur Test. As Smith and Labuschagne gear up for the second Test in Delhi, former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad trolled them in epic fashion.

A picture of Labuschagne and Smith training together in the nets surfaced on Thursday. Reacting to the picture, Prasad wrote: “Can do Thumbs Up together as well for Allan Border”.

Can do Thumbs Up together as well for Allan Border https://t.co/toXqemrUcP

— Venkatesh Prasad (@venkateshprasad) February 15, 2023

Prasad’s tweet is in reference to the comments that Border had made, slamming Smith for his ‘ridiculous’ thumbs-up gestures to Indian bowlers during the first Test.

Earlier, Border had said: “Play with a harder edge. I mean, we’re giving blokes the thumbs up when they’re beating us outside the off stump. What the hell is going on? That is just ridiculous. Don’t go stupid, but Australia play hard nose cricket. We’re even giving someone thumbs up…bloody hell.”

Smith could only score 37 (107) and 25* (51) in the first Test while Labuschagne had scored 49 (123) and 17 (28).

Australia have been under pressure to deliver, especially following certain odd decisions that they had taken following their arrival. The tourists decided to not play a single practice game while some of their experts and former cricketers back home started to play the ‘pitch blame game’ even before the match had started.