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'Bigger than the Ashes': Steve Smith, David Warner on winning Test series in India, 'If we can topple that mountain...'
Steve Smith and David Warner are widely rated as the two best Australian batters of their generation but they have contrasting records in Test matches in India.
India and Australia are set to lock horns in Test cricket once again from February 9 as the latter tour the country for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The four Test series starts in Nagpur and the Australians have prepared for the series in a different way from usual, choosing not to play any tour games and instead preparing in their own turf on pitches that had been scoffed up to mimic the spinning conditions that they would find in India.
Australia are looking to avoid a fourth consecutive Test series loss to India, having lost 2-1 in their last tour of India and then incredibly losing twice at home to the side. However, they will be fighting against the odds as success has been hard to come by for Australia in India in Test cricket. Former captain and batting talisman Steve Smith is aware of this and admitted that a win in India would probably be bigger than an Ashes victory.
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“It's a difficult place to win a Test match, let alone a series. If we are able to topple that mountain, that would be huge. I think, if we can win in India, that would be bigger than an Ashes series,” he said in a video tweeted out by cricket.com.au.
Opener David Warner, who is also looking to correct his less than impressive record in Test cricket in India, said that he is looking forward to playing some of the best spinners in the world. “I am really looking forward to that tour. It is always a hard graft. The one thing I am really looking forward to about that is applying myself against the best spinners in the world. Being a part of that last Ashes was fantastic but beating India in India, that is the toughest challenge for us,” he said.
While Warner and Smith are considered the two best Australian batters of their generations, their record in India have been rather contrasting. Smith has scored a whopping 660 runs in 12 innings at an average of 60 with three centuries. Warner, on the other hand, has scored just 338 runs in 16 innings at an average of 24.25, despite the fact that he has found immense success in both white ball formats in India.
