Smith advises team to score big in first innings vs India

Steve Smith

Bengaluru, March 3 – Australia captain Steve Smith on Friday advised his team to bat well and score big runs in the first innings because the track here may not deteriorate much like in Pune.

Smith also admitted that the Indian team, whose 19-match unbeaten streak was broken in Pune will bounce back strongly.

“Looking at this wicket we think it’s going to be similar to those games against England. First innings runs are going to be crucial to bat long periods of time and in terms of posting a big first innings score,” Smith told media persons ahead of the second Test match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here from Saturday.

“First innings there were big runs scored and the pitch obviously deteriorated and spinners could come into play probably later on.”

“We know India are going to come back hard at us, there is no doubt about it. They play very well here at home but from our point of view we can take a lot (of positives) from the way we played last week,” he added.

With one win needed to clinch the Border-Gavaskar trophy, Smith said the team will start the match with a positive mindset.

“There were some very tough conditions and the way the boys adapted to the conditions was spot on. So we are going to have to start again, start well from ball one here. We know it’s a completely different wicket,” the skipper said.

“We know that we have to win one more game to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and things can happen pretty quickly here in India at certain times, particularly at the back end of the game. So we can only be a couple of sessions away from that,” he added.

Smith also informed that they will play with the unchanged squad in the second match.

“We will play with the same team. Based on the way we performed last week. It was a good mix of two fast bowlers, an all-rounder that bowls quick and two quality spinners as well,” Smith said.