Steve Smith makes startling revelation about nasty Jofra Archer hit ahead of Ashes Test at Lords

Steve Smith returns to Lord’s this Wednesday – four years after being felled by a Jofra Archer thunderbolt which struck him in the head and left him feeling like he’d ‘had a dozen beers’.

He was on 80 that afternoon after surviving all the bombs from Archer, eventually turning when a short-pitch rocket reared up hitting him so hard in the back of the head, on the helmet, that he went down.

On the eve of his return to the same dangerous pitch, Smith revealed the huge impact the nasty hit had. 

Steve Smith has revealed the huge impact his nasty hit from Jofra Archer in 2019 had on him

Knocked out and concussed Smith lies prone as players firstly then medics rush to his aid following an Archer thunderbolt ball

He said it left him feeling like he’d ‘had a dozen beers’

‘It was a very difficult period to get through,’ Smith told the Legend of the Ashes podcast. 

‘I caught one on the arm earlier, got away with a few pull shots that are top edges and a couple in the gaps.

‘And then I copped one in the back of the head, which hurt a fair bit. At that stage, I didn’t realise I was getting concussed. 

‘I went off and did all the tests, and passed all those tests.

‘It wasn’t until I came back out. Half-an-hour after, when the adrenalin sort of went out of my system and I started to feel quite groggy, probably like I’d had a dozen beers to be honest.’ 

Archer, who consistently fired down 154km deadly rocks at the Australian batter, had been peppering the Aussie all innings yet Smith kept fending him off until he didn’t. 

England’s speed demon Jofra Archer preparing to send down a 154km bullet at Aussie champion batter Steve Smith at Lord’s in 2019

Some time later, at the end of the innings, when his head had cleared, the champion batter found a reason why life out in the middle was both frightening and difficult that afternoon.

‘I wasn’t seeing the ball properly on an overcast day at Lord’s.

‘It was quite a dark, gloomy day,’ he remembered.

‘The clouds were rolling in and out. Lord’s itself can be a little difficult when they are bowling from the members’ end with the members sitting there and the sightscreen not as big as at other grounds.

‘There were a few distractions there, and it was just a day (when) I wasn’t quite seeing the ball as well as I would have liked from that end.’ 

The lightning bolt from Archer strikes Smith on the helmet sending him into a world of pain and knocking him off his feat in 2019

Fortunately for Smith and Australia, they won’t have to face Archer this year after the paceman was ruled out of the series with injury, no doubt upsetting many who like personal battles.

On that afternoon four years ago Smith was courageously battling through the many visibility distractions and several body bumps from the fast bowlers.

He had survived it all before the short-pitched lightning bolt from Archer struck him.

He retired hurt but did come back on after the next wicket fell. Presumably now concussed yet made another eight runs ending that innings with 92.

Smith’s best mate Marnus Labuschagne was subbed in to take his spot in the 2nd innings of that Lord’s Test and he left having established himself as a batter of brilliance scoring 59.  Australia salvaged a dramatic draw in the absence of Steve Smith. 

This year, he and the vaunted Aussie batting lineup will take a one – nil lead into the second Ashes Test and Smith will be itching to get out in the middle.

He scored just 6 and 16 at Edgebaston when the Aussies fought tooth and nail to win virtually on the wire with scant overs left and just two wickets in the sheds.