England all-rounder Ben Stokes has lauded world number one Test batsman Steve Smith and has labelled the Australian as a "genius".
England had to face the brunt of Smith's batting during the last year's Ashes as the Australian was named the Player of the Series.
Smith piled on more than 700 runs in the five-match series and helped Australia to keep the Ashes urn.
"He's (Smith) still strange to play against and he's still strange to play with, and the best thing about it is that he admits it. He knows it, he knows it. But I feel to be a genius you have to be a bit strange and you know he's certainly both," Stokes told New Zealand spinner Ish Sodhi said during a Rajasthan Royals' podcast program.
"Even though he plays for Australia, you have just got to hold your hands up sometimes to players like that and go yeah you are on a different level when it comes to batting," he added.
Stokes also said that being unorthodox works highly in favour of Smith and the Australian plays it to his advantage.
"I could never be like that, personally, I could not think about cricket in the way that he does when it comes to batting. You know obviously he's on all the time but that's why he averages sixty whatever he does in Test cricket but that's not for me but it's for him, who's to say whose right or wrong," Stokes said.
Stokes and Smith are team-mates at Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals and the duo would have been in action had the tournament commenced on March 29.
However, the tournament has been suspended indefinitely due to COVID-19.
( With inputs from ANI )
