Smith showed mental strength: McGrath

Chennai (PTI): Steve Smith's twin hundreds in the opening Ashes Test was an example of what mental fortitude means after having gone through an extremely rough phase, Australian pace legend Glenn McGrath said on Wednesday.

Smith scored 144 and 142 in Australia's 251-run win against England at the Edgbaston in his comeback Test after being banned for a year due to ball tampering scandal. "You have to go out there and let the bat do the talking. It's been 16 or 17 months since what happened in South Africa, it's time to be left in the past. The crowd was giving Smith a pretty hard time. For him to come out there and perform shows the mental strength he has," McGrath, the head of MRF Pace Foundation told reporters during an event.

McGrath believes that it was the hunger to succeed having lost out a year of Test cricket that was evident in his batting. "He (Smith) just went out there and looked at ease, he looked like he had so much more time than anyone else in the whole match. That episode made him a lot hungrier. Those were couple of special innings, they meant a lot to him and the rest of the team," he added.