India’s Ravichandran Ashwin said that Australia are known for its mind games and sledges before a series when talking about Steve Smith’s recent comments on the Indian pitches.
“The last time we went I’m pretty sure we got served up a green-top (to practice on) and it was sort of irrelevant. We’re better off having our own nets and getting spinners in and bowling as much as they can. We’ll wait and see when we hit the ground. I think we’ve made the right decision to not play a tour match,” Smith had said when asked why the Australian team were not opting to play warm up matches before the 1st Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, set to begin on February 9.
To this Ashwin replied on his YouTube channel, saying, “Australia are not playing any tour matches this time. This is not new. Even India avoids tour games when they go on a few overseas tours. Since Team India’s schedule is packed with international games, it is not possible to turn up for practice games with the same intensity.”
“Smith said, ‘We got a green wicket in Brabourne and a completely opposite one in the first Test (during the 2017 series). In all fairness, it was a rank-turner in Pune. We might have given them a green track, but nobody plans all these things. However, Australia are known for its mind games and sledges before a series. They love doing that. It’s their style of cricket,” Ashwin added.
Meanwhile, the picture of the doctored pitch from the Australian camp for four days at Alur as part of their preparation for the upcoming four-match test series against India took over cricket social media on Friday.
Courtesy of Australia head coach Andrew McDonald and spin consultant Daniel Vettori’s association with Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Karnataka Cricket Association (KCA) worked up on three surfaces for the visitors to prepare for the threat to come from the Indian spinners.