Three bouncers and I can dismiss Smith on the fourth ball: Shoaib Akhtar

Lahore, May 12:  It will take four deliveries for Shoaib Akhtar to send world's premier batsman Steve Smith back in the hut even today, the former Pakistan pacer has said.

"Even today, 3 hurting bouncers and i can dismiss @stevesmith49 on the 4th ball. Lol," Akhtar said in a tweet.

The 44-year old quick was responding to a ESPNcricinfo poll on popular social networking platform Twitter where the cricket website paired 20 top players -- former and current -- with each other and asked fans to pick one contest they would love to watch.

Among them, one was Australia batting ace Smith and Pakistan pace great Akhtar. The others were Sachin Tendulkar and Rashid Khan, Ricky Ponting and Jofra Archer, Virat Kohli and Shane Warne, Brian Lara and Neil Wagner, AB de Villiers and Wasim Akram, Kane Williamson and Muttiah Muralitharan, Kevin Pietersen and Kagiso Rabada, Saeed Anwar and Jasprit Bumrah, Babar Azam and Glenn McGrath.

While many opted for Indian captain Kohli and Aussie spin legend Warne, they were few who wanted to watch former Australia skipper Ponting take on England speedster Archer as well. Some of the parings were deemed as no-show.

Recently, veteran England fast bowler Stuart Broad said Smith is the best he has played against.

The Ashes was the first Test series Smith was playing since being banned from all cricket after the 2018 ball-tampering fiasco and smashed a whopping 774 runs.

All cricket is currently on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic which has brought the world to a standstill.