Australia star batter Steve Smith wants to adopt to a proactive approach and not let Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin settle in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar series. During the 2020/21 series between the 2 teams, Ashwin got Smith’s wicket on 3 occasions.
“I don’t like getting out to off-spin in Australia. But he’s also a very good bowler and he came in with some decent plans. There were a couple of occasions where he got on top of me,” Smith told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“But then I got on top of him at the SCG when I was a bit more proactive (Smith made 131 and 81 at Sydney). So, that’s key for me. Just be proactive against him and not let him settle and bowl the way he wants to,” Smith added.
The 35-year-old Australia batter hopes to land the first blow on Ashwin to gain an early upper hand in the 5-match series, beginning in Perth from November 22.
“Ashwin and I have had some good battles over the years. When you have five matches, if someone gets on top of another player, they could have 10 innings against them,” Smith said.
“So, you’re facing those mental challenges each game, and if it goes one way early, they will feel under pressure against that player. There’s nowhere to hide in five games like there are in a two-game series,” Smith added.
Smith just stands 315 runs short of completing 10,000 Test runs and will be batting at his favoured number 4 spit against India in the upcoming Test series.
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