"India is probably my favourite place in the world to captain" - Steve Smith after Australia's emphatic win in Indore
Australia's stand-in captain Steve Smith has revealed that he enjoys captaining in India the most, given how the pitch behaves in almost every Test. The 33-year-old's comments came after Australia thumped India in the third Test within three days at the Holkar Stadium in Indore.
Smith, filling in for Pat Cummins in Indore, sparked Australia's resurgence in Indore as they coasted to a nine-wicket win after starting the series with successive losses. The tourists chased down the required 76 runs in the fourth innings after early jitters to book a spot in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final at The Oval in June.
Australia are IN!
They'll face either India or Sri Lanka in the WTC final in early June at the Oval, London #INDvAUS https://t.co/9iVmdhVWWF
Speaking to SEN Radio after Australia's nine-wicket victory, Smith revealed that he relishes captaining in India, given the intricacies involved and the tempo that requires to be maintained. The New South Wales lad highlighted that Australia's plans to stick to their methods come what may paid rich dividends.
"India is probably my favourite place in the world to captain, to be honest. When a lot is happening on these wickets, I understand the intricacies of the game and the game pace that it needs to be played. Every ball is an event and that ball can affect the next ball as well. I love moving the players around That’s just the plan for us, just stick to our methods, stick to the processes. If we do that, we take the result out of play. If we lose while playing in the way we play, then so be it. But we know, with this group, if we stick to our plans for longer periods of the game, we win more often than we lose."
Smith's captaincy earned widespread praise from Indian and Australian cricket experts for his bowling and fielding changes for the spinners. The ace Test batter brought on Matthew Kuhnemann as a first-change bowler in the first innings and the left-arm spinner responded with two quick wickets. He went on to take a fifer that helped the visitors bowl India out for 109.
"All I wanted from them is to take their egos out of play" - Steve Smith on handling the spinners
Smith lauded his three spinners for not allowing their ego to come in the middle of Australia's win as he had to chop and change to get the desired results. He added:
"I am really pleased the way the guys have gone about it. For me, standing in as captain, with the spin bowlers in particular, all I wanted from them is to take their egos out of play. They all want to be bowling at the same time when the wicket is doing that. But I was like ‘trust me. We are going to be chopping and changing. That doesn’t mean you are bowling badly if I take you off, it’s just that someone can do something better’ guys responded to that really well."
'Nobody else is catching that!'
Nathan Lyon heaped praise on Steve Smith after his incredible leg-slip blinder to remove the dangerous Cheteshwar Pujara in 'massive' moment late on day two #INDvAUS https://t.co/DepxCKj0Tf
The victory made the right-hander the only visiting captain to win two Tests on Indian soil on multiple tours in the recent past.