Nagpur: Australia vice-captain Steve Smith on Thursday dismissed suggestions that his team made a mistake by dropping top-order batsman Travis Head. Also said that it was necessary to give chance to two off-spinners in the first Test against India here on Thursday. Batting first, Australia were all out for 177 in their first innings, with Indian spinner Ravindra Jadeja taking 5/47 and off-spinner R Ashwin taking 3/42.
Smith (37) and Marnus Labuschagne (49) shared an 82-run partnership for Australia. In reply, captain Rohit Sharma scored an unbeaten 56 to reach 77/1 at the end of the day’s play in 24 overs, needing 100 more runs to overtake the visitors’ score with nine wickets remaining. Smith said that Matt Renshaw has done well when given the opportunity and they discussed various combinations before finalizing the playing XI.
The experienced Smith led Australia in 36 Tests before losing his captaincy following the Sandpapergate scandal and had captained some Tests as stand-in captain in the last two seasons. He said that though both Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy are off-spinners. They are different and have different ways of working.
Smith admitted that some of his batsmen got out by playing bad shots in the hope that the ball would spin more. This happens when the ball is moving on the pitch. He admitted that it was not a bad pitch and it was possible to score runs, as shown by Labuschagne and Rohit Sharma. The right-handed batsman said that Jadeja bowled well. Now he said that there will be an attempt to restrict India to a minimum score. Don’t doubt Rohit’s strategy, Ashwin’s tricks and Jadeja’s spin, ho gaya na khel!IND vs AUS: Those 3 balls on the very first day of the match… If the answer is not found then the Australian team will be in troubleRavindra Jadeja said a big thing about the pitch, this statement is going to put the fans in tension!
Source: navbharattimes.indiatimes.com
: Language Inputs
This post is sourced from newspapers, magazines and third-party websites. For more information please check NewsDay ExpressDisclaimer.
NewsDayExpress.Com is the hub for all kinds of news from the country and the world, sports headlines, business, Bollywood, Television, Fashion, Lifestyle, Health, and politics news.