Steven Smith responds to Harbhajan's remarks

Australian skipper Steven Smith has dead batted the opinion of Harbhajan Singh that Australia will succumb to a 4-0 defeat to India in the Test series starting on February 23 at Pune. The off-spinner had opined that the Aussies have a very weak squad on the tour and he gave them no chance against the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly had also voiced his opinion on the same lines. He had mentioned that he will definitely not be surprised to see the Aussie being whitewashed in the series. Now, ahead of the first Test, the Australian skipper has cleared that they are here to compete. He rejected all claims made by Harbhajan Singh. He noted that different people have their opinions and so does Harbhajan. Smith admitted that the series will be tough and they are very much aware of that fact.

“Everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, I don’t believe that’s the case. I’m confident in the squad and we’ve got here to compete against India. No doubt it’s going to be a difficult series. India have played some very good cricket off late, particularly at home. So we’re under no illusions there, it’s going to be tough. But we’ve got the squad here that can compete in these conditions,” quoted Steven Smith.

He further added that they will surely go in the series as the underdogs but that does not necessarily mean that they are demeaning themselves to lose 0-4. He is more concerned about the learning experience that the young side will get. He hopes that the players develop the right mindset and skills to adhere to the plans for the subcontinental challenge.

Also read- 5 Eagerly awaited player battles in the India v Australia Test series

“Yes, I guess we are the underdogs in this series. You hear comments like Harbhajan who expect us to lose 4-0. That’s not how we feel. We want to compete here against India. It’s going to be a tough series; they’ve got some quality players in their line-up. So yes, it’s going to be difficult,” said the Australian skipper.

“But I guess what I want to see from my boys is ability to adapt to the plans we have in place, show some fight and resilience in tough situations. There are going to be difficult moments in games, some key moments that we need to identify. Hopefully, we can have the skills, plans and mindsets in place to counter those difficult moments,” Smith added further.

Talking about the team combinations, Smith gave nothing away as he cited that the playing eleven will be disclosed on the match day. He was surprised to see a very dry track at the venue in Pune. He remarked they have their bases covered with all players in the squad covering different skill sets.

“We don’t have a team as yet. We’ll wait until the toss to announce that. But we’ve got a few options, got a very big squad here to cover all options. At the moment, the wicket looks incredibly dry for a day before the Test match. So it will depend on what sort of combination we want to go in with,” conceded Steven Smith.