With less than seven days to go for the clash of the titans, Australian skipper Steve Smith seems to be wary of the prospects of Virat Kohli. India will host Australia in a five match One Day International series. The first ODI happens to be on the 17th of September. The Australian team led by Smith has already arrived in India. The visiting team is in Chennai, which is the venue for the first ODI. The Australian team is not having the best of times after they were tamed by lesser-ranked Bangladesh in their backyard and the playing conditions will not change drastically in India.
Speaking to the media, Smith revealed his plans and also spoke about his face-off with Kohli. He said, “I am not too concerned about the differences with Kohli. He is obviously a very good player and has a phenomenal ODI record. Hopefully, we can keep him quiet as much as possible in this series. If we do that then hopefully it can go a long way in us having success on this tour.”
Smith also spoke of the wickets he expected in India, he said:
I think it will be played in good spirit. It is a hard- fought contest playing against India. Looking back at the last One-day tour, I wasn’t on it in 2013. It was a big run fest from memory. Pretty flat wickets and big totals. We will see what we are presented with and it could be the same again.
Australia captain Steve Smith faces the media in Chennai ahead of the ODI series against India starting next Sunday #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/zhMUZIMjjw
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) September 10, 2017
From the Indian squad, ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja would be missing on the play.
Smith also spoke about their Bangladesh tour and said:
I think the One-day group has played spin pretty well for a little while. Obviously, we are still learning in the Test format and trying to improve. We are coming from a challenging tour of Bangladesh.
In the span of a month and a half, the Australian team will travel the length and breadth of the country. Like from Chennai, south, where the first match will be played, the teams move upwards to the east, Kolkata for the second ODI. There are still speculations over Yuvraj Singh’s selection, only time will tell he gets the nod or not.
