Don’t be complacent: Steve Smith tells team ahead of Bengaluru Test

Tags: Australia tour of India,2017, India Vs Australia 2nd Test at Bangalore, Mar 04-08, 2017, India, Australia, Steven Peter Devereux Smith

Published on: Mar 03, 2017

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Australian captain Steve Smith has cautioned his team not to get complacent when they head into the second Test

Australian captain Steve Smith has cautioned his team not to get complacent when they head into the second Test against India at Bengaluru starting Saturday. The Aussies had thrashed India by 333 runs in the opening Test at Pune.
Speaking at the pre-match conference, Smith said, "We know India are going to come back hard at us, there is no doubt about it. They play very well at home.”
Smith added they need to stay grounded. "We can take a lot of heart from the way we played last week. The conditions were very tough and the way the boys adopted to the conditions was appreciable. But it is a new game and we will have to make a fresh start. We will have to start from ball one,” he added.
The Aussie captain feels the Bengaluru pitch will be different from the one at Pune, and that the batting effort in the first innings will be crucial. "It was a difficult wicket in Pune and we showed them we can compete in those conditions and, more importantly, we probably showed ourselves."
Smith wants his team to bat for long hours. "I think the wicket here is going to be similar to the one that was prepared for the England match. First innings runs are going to be crucial. We need to bat for long periods of time to be able to post a big first innings score," he opined.
"It's just about the mindset of batting for long periods of time. The last wicket in Pune we played on, we thought 250 was a good total. But here I think it's going to be a lot more than that in the first innings.
"Looking at the wicket it's crucial to score big in the first innings," he further said.
Smith also confirmed that Australia are going in with an unchanged team. "We are playing the same team. It was a good mix of two fast bowlers, an all-rounder that bowls quick and two quality spinners," he also explained.
--By A Cricket Correspondent

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