Steve Smith Starts Mind Games, Challenges India's Pacers Ahead Of Test Series

Ahead of the much-anticipated Border-Gavaskar series, Australia batting mainstay Steve Smith has challenged India’s pace attack to bring on the short bowling. The former Australia skipper has already started the mind games as he said that if India’s pacers focus on banging the ball in at him it will work in Australia’s favour.

India’s pacers will have to play a key role if they are to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy. The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma had played a crucial role in India’s historic triumph in Australia during the 2018-19 series.

India’s pace bowling trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami were on fire and kept the Australian batsmen on their toes throughout the series. The India pacers bagged a total of 51 wickets in the four matches with Australia getting bowled out 7 times out of 8 during the series.

Steve Smith’s challenge to India’s pacers:

The way Steve Smith and some of his other teammates struggled against Neil Wagner’s short bowling during the home series against New Zealand in the 2019-2020 season, it is a no-brainer that India pacers would definitely try it out in the upcoming series.

Wagner had bowled a barrage of bouncers and dismissed Australia’s three leading batsmen – Steve Smith, David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne – a combined 10 times. Smith in particular looked uncomfortable and was dismissed four times by the left-arm pacer.

“It’s no dramas for me. I just play the game and sum up the conditions, how they’re trying to get me out and being able to counter that,” Steve Smith told News Corp. “I mean, a few different oppositions have tried it and they’ve certainly found it more difficult to [execute it] the way Wagner did. He’s got an amazing skill set where his speeds go up and down…everything is between your ribs and your head.

“If teams are trying to get me out like that it’s probably a big benefit for the team because it takes a lot out of people’s bodies if you continually bowl short. I’ve faced a lot of short bowling in my life and I haven’t had too many stresses with it. I suppose we’ll just wait and see,” he added.

Steve Smith had missed the previous series against India as he was serving his suspension for the Newlands ball-tampering scandal. His record against India especially in Australia is phenomenal and he would be raring to pile up the runs this summer. The four-match series is scheduled to start on December 17 in Adelaide.

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