It is important to stick to your strategy for a long time to bat in India: Smith
Australia’s stand-in captain Steve Smith said here on Tuesday that batting in India requires concentration and patience and his team will follow the same strategy in the third Test cricket match starting here from Wednesday. Smith will captain Australia in this match after regular captain Pat Cummins returned home due to his mother’s illness. He was earlier also the captain of the Australian team that toured India in 2016-17.
Smith said on the eve of the match on the question asked about the captaincy, “I don’t know if you can call it perfection.” Cummins has returned home and I have got this captaincy in difficult circumstances. We were in good positions on a few occasions but could not capitalize on them. We can hope that we will improve on these things in this match.
Smith doesn’t play sweep shots regularly but Usman Khawaja and Alex Carey have good grip on this shot. The stand-in skipper, however, urged his players to play the sweep shot with full confidence. Smith said, “Delhi is a difficult place to play the sweep shot because there is uneven bounce compared to any other place. Some of us players were not able to bat according to the plan and it was disappointing.”
He said, “Some of our players play sweep shots well but they have to execute the strategy perfectly. If he wants to play this shot, he has to be 100 per cent committed to it.” Australia’s batsmen have so far found it difficult to play the Indian spinners. Smith said, “It is important for us to stick to our strategy for a long time. In the second innings in Delhi, many of our batsmen did not stick to their plans.
He said, “We hope that in this Test match, we will be able to put pressure on the spinners and get a good score.” This is very important for us. Hopefully we will execute it at the crease and play well in pressure situations. ”Australia practiced hard on Monday but took part in an optional practice session a day before the match.
Smith and Marnus Labuschagne were among the players who practiced on Tuesday. Smith said, “India is the most difficult place to open your innings compared to any other place in the world. When you play 30 to 40 balls, you can predict the wicket a bit. Some balls bounce unevenly. You really have to play with a lot of concentration.
