Australia’s premier batsman Steve Smith seemed to be determined to come out of his poor form in the ongoing third Test of the four-Test series against India, as he has shown great intent on the opening day of the Pink Test at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Thursday (January 7).
In the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Smith’s score reads 1, 1, 0, and 8 with India’s off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin dismissing the batsman twice in his four outings for Australia.
However, in Sydney, the right-hander looked in good touch with the bat, scoring 31* as well as added 60* runs for the third wicket with Marnus Labuschagne (67*) to take Australian to a comfortable 166 for two at stumps of a rain-marred opening day of the ongoing third Test on Thursday.
During his stay, the star batsman played some attacking shots to ensure his stay and remained unbeaten 31 against India at the closed of the opening day's play at the SCG.
After the end of the day’s play at SCG, Smith has revealed that he was looking to put Ashwin under pressure after being the victim of the ace spinner twice so far in the ongoing four-Test series.
Smith said: “I’m good, nice to spend a bit of time out there, nice to stitch in a partnership with Marnus. I wanted to put him (Ashwin) under a little bit of pressure which I haven’t done this series.”
He signed off by saying, “I was just trying to hold the grip a bit tighter, I’ve been struggling, so I was getting into good positions today. It was good to get a couple of boundaries early. Marnus played well, hopefully, we go along well tomorrow.”
(With PTI Inputs)
