The ongoing Border-Gavaskar trophy is leveled 1-1 with both Australia and India winning one Test-match each.
While the third test match is underway in Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), there have been talks about the form of Australian batting great, Steve Smith.
Since the start of the four-Test Border-Gavaskar trophy 2020-21, Steve Smith has aggregated only 10 runs from the beginning four innings of the first two Tests.
The world’s no.3 ranked Test batsman has been dismissed twice out of three occasions by Indian off-spinner, R Ashwin, and once by the leader of Indian bowling attack, Jasprit Bumrah, who rattled his stumps in the fourth-innings of the second Test-match in MCG.
However, on the first day of the third Test, Smith showed great resilience and application against the Indian bowlers, adding 60* runs with Marnus Labuschagne (67*) and remained unbeaten on 31 at the end of the day, with Australia 166/2.
AUS v IND 2020-21: "Looked to put R Ashwin under pressure", says Steve Smith
R Ashwin, however tried to create pressure straightaway and intentionally gave a single on the first ball of his over to bring Steve Smith on strike.
The idea was to create an opportunity to bowl the rest of the over to talismanic batsman. However, Smith countered brilliantly and also succeeded in collecting few boundaries.
Sunil Gavaskar, who was the first batsman to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket, praised Steve Smith saying that his body language reflected his confidence on Thursday.
"You can see that from the body language. He was looking to step down the pitch every time Ashwin gave the ball a little bit of air and he was quite happy to play the ball towards the on the side with the turn, he was leaning more into the drive, so more control over the ball and was keeping it along the ground. Once he got that mid-wicket boundary he got a lot more confident.” said Sunil Gavaskar on Sony Network.
Sunil Gavaskar hailed Steve Smith, calling him one of the greatest batsman world has ever seen.
“He is one of the greatest batsmen the world has seen, a different method than you would expect, not quite orthodox but consistency and amount of runs he has scored is phenomenal,” Gavaskar added.
In 2020, Smith played only 3 Tests, scoring 73 runs at an average of 18.25 but he looks to start 2021 in style.
(Sony Network inputs)
