'Ashwin should tell about the special delivery for Smith' - Sunil Gavaskar's brilliant response to Australia's 'mind games'

The rivalry between Australia and India has been long-standing, regardless of the format. Each series, especially the red-ball ones, have always been accompanied with compelling narratives and former legends giving predictions much before the commencement of the series.

Former Indian cricketer, Sunil Gavaskar, is of the opinion that the forthcoming home Tests against Bangladesh and New Zealand will hold India in good stead for the tour Down Under. He also shed light on the psychological tactics already having begun in relation to the highly-anticipated series.  

“The five Test matches that India play (at home) before they go to Australia will be good for the mental tuning that is required for a tough tour like that. Already the mind games have begun with Australian players both current and former airing their views about what the result would be,” wrote Gavaskar in his column for Mid-Day.

Fuelling the mental games from his end, Gavaskar stirred the plot and added his own seasoning by suggesting that R Ashwin should hint at a special delivery he's working on for Steve Smith.

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“Maybe Ravichandran Ashwin should start telling us about a special delivery that he is developing for Steve Smith, that is of course if he continues to open the batting and can survive Jasprit Bumrah,” penned Gavaskar.

Gavaskar disappointed with lack of McGrath-like remarks made by Indian fraternity

The former opening batter also expressed his disappointment at the fact that no one apart from his teammate Ravi Shastri gives it back to the Australians in terms of verbal chatter.

“While they (Australia) are not making Glenn McGrath-like statements of a clean sweep, they are still suggesting that Australia will prevail. Sadly, apart from Ravi Shastri no other former or current player has seen to counter the mind games which the Aussies are so good at,” added Gavaskar.

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Interestingly, less than a month back, Shastri had come out with a bold prediction, stating that Australia will succumb to a third consecutive series defeat at home, having lost the previous two iterations in 2017-18 and 2020-21.