Stand-in Australia captain Steve Smith issued a clarification after the batting icon's statement about the match pitch managed to draw the attention of the Australian media ahead of the 4th Test match against India. Under Smith's leadership, Australia have bounced back after suffering back-to-back defeats at the hands of Rohit Sharma's Team India in the high-profile Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
With regular captain Pat Cummins opting to stay back in Australia for personal reasons, veteran batter Smith will lead the visitors in the series decider of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Ahmedabad. Speaking to reporters ahead of the fourth and final Test of the bilateral series, Australia's stand-in skipper Smith explained why the visitors have decided to delay naming their playing XI.
"We'll have a look (at the pitch on Wednesday) and we'll reassess, but it could be we name the team at the toss," Smith told reporters. With spinners ruling the roost in India, Smith defended Australia's ploy of naming a spin-heavy playing XI against the hosts, who have already retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
"It's been weird with a bit of the commentary back home, people talking about us playing three quicks and one spinner. It's kind of mind-boggling to me when we look at these surfaces and we see what we've had – 11 innings in six days or something like that. Spinners have taken the bulk of the wickets and you see how difficult it is to play the spin. It's kind of odd to hear that kind of commentary. But we've had faith in what we're trying to do and it's good that we are able to show that we can play with three spinners and win," Smith added.
{{/usCountry}}"It's been weird with a bit of the commentary back home, people talking about us playing three quicks and one spinner. It's kind of mind-boggling to me when we look at these surfaces and we see what we've had – 11 innings in six days or something like that. Spinners have taken the bulk of the wickets and you see how difficult it is to play the spin. It's kind of odd to hear that kind of commentary. But we've had faith in what we're trying to do and it's good that we are able to show that we can play with three spinners and win," Smith added.
{{/usCountry}}After giving an honest assessment of the Indian pitches in the traditional press conference, Smith took to Twitter and revealed that his recent remarks were misconstrued ahead of the 4th Test against India. “I think I’ve been misunderstood here. I was talking about commentary from back home about playing 3 quicks on the prior surfaces as mind-boggling. We will look and see if we think this surface is the same or not,” Smith tweeted.
Smith's Australia will hope to level the series 2-2 in the final encounter of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy which is scheduled to take place at the famous Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday. Smith and Co. have arrived in Ahmedabad after registering their first win of the four-natch series in Indore. Smith's Australia defeated India by 9 wickets in the 3rd Test to seal their place in the final of the ICC World Test Championship.