IND vs AUS: Stand-in skipper Steve Smith wants Australia to slow things down in third Test

Steve Smith. (Photo Source: BCCI)

After suffering back-to-back defeats in the first and second Test, Australia have once again failed to clinch the prestigious Border-Gavaskar Trophy. As per veteran batter Steve Smith, they had the situation under control in the second Test in Delhi but rushed things a little bit which saw the Pat Cummins-led side bundle out for 113 runs in the second innings of the match.

India had no problem chasing the paltry total down as they won the match by six wickets. Meanwhile, when asked about his dismissal and Australia’s collapse in the second Test, Smith revealed that he was very angry with the way he got out. He shared his thoughts regarding where Australia went wrong in the match.

“I’ve played 95 (94) Test matches…and I don’t think there’s been too many times I’ve walked off the field and I’ve gone, ‘what the hell am I doing?’ I was pretty angry. There hasn’t been too many times in my career where I’ve actually come off and just been bedazzled by what I’ve done. It wasn’t my finest moment,” Smith said.

“It wasn’t the way I wanted to play, particularly when I had the field set, for all of us actually, they had the field out. We probably just rushed things a little bit and it’s something we’ll talk about when we meet [on Wednesday]. When we’ve got them on the ropes, we can slow things down. We don’t have to play at such a high tempo and risky tempo. Because we had them where we wanted them, we had men out and the ability to get off strike. We just rushed it,” the 33-year-old continued.

I think starting your innings is tough anywhere in the world: Smith

In the first two Tests of the series, the ball started turning from Day 1 itself and it put Australia under tremendous pressure. According to Smith, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are extremely smart bowlers and if one doesn’t slow down things against them, it will be difficult for the batters to get going.

“It’s not easy. That’s the way they (Ashwin and Jadeja) go. They know when they are on top of you, they’ll try and rush you and play on their terms. For us, when we’re under pressure it’s about slowing it down as much as we can; maybe making them wait a little bit, walk away and regain your thoughts rather than just coming back and back. Certain things like that.

I think starting your innings is as tough as anywhere in the world here in India. We know if you get in, you’ve got to make it count. There’ll be odd times when you get a very good ball and get dismissed. I don’t like the term, ‘have one with your name on it’ so much, you’ve got to try and take that out of your mind,” the Australian batter reasoned ahead of the much-awaited third Test in Indore.

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