Steve Smith worried over collapse trend of Aussies despite win

Chittagong, September 8: Australian captain Steve Smith has put his side's batsmen on notice ahead of the Ashes after declaring their long-standing trend of meltdowns at the crease as "not good enough for an Australian cricket team".

After Australia saved face with a series-levelling victory over Bangladesh, Smith highlighted batting collapses as the side's biggest cause for concern, reports cricket.com.au.

While there were substantial contributions from David Warner (123), Peter Hansdcomb (82) and Smith himself (58) in Chittagong, the ensuing collapse of 7-79 in their first innings was the latest stumble in what's become a worrying tendency for Smith's side.

"I still think have a lot of improvement in us. We probably let ourselves down at times throughout this Test match," the 28-year-old said after Australia's seven-wicket win.

"I thought our first-innings bowling was very good to restrict them. Our first-innings batting, obviously the partnership between 'Petey' (Handscomb) and 'Davey' (Warner) was fantastic.

"And then we got ourselves into one of our collapses that we've had. I think we've had 15 collapses in our last 14 games, our analyst told me.

"That's not good enough for an Australian cricket team. That's something we really need to work on. We need to rectify that come the next series and the Ashes," he added.