Australia captain Steve Smith addressed the media in a pre-match press conference ahead of their high-stakes ICC Champions Trophy semifinal clash against India on Tuesday. With India entering the match on the back of an unbeaten run, Smith acknowledged their dominance and shared his thoughts on the challenges ahead. When asked if Australia had a plan to silence the Indian crowd, like Pat Cummins mentioned ahead of the 2023 ODI World Cup final, Smith responded, “Yeah, I don’t really have a message to be honest. Just going out and playing, and hopefully, we can put on a good show.”
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Discussing whether India had an advantage playing in Dubai, Smith admitted that familiarity with the conditions could play a role. “Maybe, I’m not sure. India have played all their games here, so they’ve seen what the surface is doing. The whole square block is pretty dry, and having spoken to the groundsman just now, it’s a dry surface with a lot of traffic. We’ve seen how the wickets have played, and India have obviously played really well in their games. So, it’s going to be a good contest, and we’re looking forward to it,” he added.
A key challenge for Australia will be countering India’s spin attack, particularly mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who troubled New Zealand in the previous match. When asked about a specific plan against him, Smith emphasized the importance of tackling spin in the middle overs.
“Yeah I mean, I think not just Chakravarthy, I think the rest of the spinners are quality as well, so I think for us the game’s probably won and lost how we play this spin, particularly in the middle overs, the way we get through there. So yeah, it’s going to be a challenge. I think that there’s going to be some spin by the looks of it, looking at the surface. And yeah, we’ve got to counter that. So yeah, we’ll see how we do that tomorrow. We’ve got a few options of ways we can go about it so you’ll see tomorrow,” he said.
“Maybe a little bit but I think yeah, there’s been spin throughout as well So, you know, there’s different ways we can attack the game whether we want to bat or bowl first tomorrow we’ll wait and see but yeah it certainly looks a dry surface it’s going to be quite slow I imagine and take some spins so yeah I think for us as I said before playing the spinners in the middle overs is going to be crucial for us to have success in this game,” Smith said after being asked about the conditions.
from: NDTV Sports-Latest