Smith: England's one-day cricket can be risky... particularly in big tournaments

Under the leadership of coach Trevor Bayliss and captain Eoin Morgan, England's exciting young batsmen have been given free rein to go hard at the ball throughout a 50-over innings

^{Steve Smith has warned England about their white-ball batting}

England's gung-ho approach to white-ball batting could be their undoing in a major tournament.

That's the warning being dished out by Steve Smith, despite the Australia skipper having just overseen a 4-1 home series defeat at the hands of the same opposition.

Under the leadership of coach Trevor Bayliss and captain Eoin Morgan, England's exciting young batsmen have been given free rein to go hard at the ball throughout a 50-over innings and have been encouraged not to fear losing their wicket cheaply.

That has resulted in some mammoth totals in recent years but it also lays the foundation for collapses, and Smith suggested that England could rue that approach in knockout competitions such as the World Cup, which will take place in the UK next year.

"England have played a different brand of cricket where they go really hard the whole time," Smith said.

^{Smith lost the ODI series 4-1 to Eoin Morgan and England}

"That can be risky at times, particularly in big tournaments. You might get yourselves to the semi-finals or something but you can have those days where you get bowled out for 150. It can work against you as well."

Smith's comments shouldn't necessarily be treated as sour grapes, given the Baggy Green captain has been willing to praise England during the recent series, accepting on multiple occasions that his team has been second best.

"I think our one-day cricket has been disappointing for just over a year now. A lot of it comes down to poor decision making and execution out in the middle," Smith said.

"We've seen when we've played well and won games it's been about the top four, someone there going on and getting a really big score.

"Then others coming in and playing quite positively around the person getting that big score. That's the blueprint that I think works for us."

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