Batting great Sunil Gavaskar was impressed with the way Steve Smith tackled Ravichandran Ashwin on Day 1 of the Sydney Test. Smith, who had a tough time against Ashwin in the first two Test, looked more comfortable against the ace spinner in Sydney as he tried to attack him more.
Ashwin got the better of Smith twice in the series as the premier Australia batsman failed to cross a double-digit score in the series before the third Test. Earlier in the series, Smith managed to score just 1, 1*, 0 and 8 in Adelaide and Melbourne.
Gavaskar said Smith was in more control of the game on Day 1 in Sydney as he was trying to play Ashwin with the turn towards the on side.
“You can see that from the body language. He was looking to step down the pitch every time Ashwin gave the ball little bit of air and he was quite happy to play the ball towards the on side with the turn, he was leaning more into the drive, so more control over the ball and was keeping it along the ground. Once he got that mid-wicket boundary he got a lot more confident,” the 71-year-old told Sony Networks.
The legendary India player further said that Smith is one of the greatest batsmen the world has ever seen and hailed his consistency.
“He is one of the greatest batsmen the world has seen, a different method than you would expect, not quite orthodox but consistency and amount of runs he has scored is phenomenal,” Gavaskar added.
Smith scored 31 runs on Day 1 and remained not out at the stumps alongside Marnus Labuschagne 67 as Australia are 166/2.
After the end of day’s play, Smith said that he tried to put Ashwin under a pressure which he hasn’t done in the series.
“I’m good, nice to spend a bit of time out there, nice to stitch in a partnership with Marnus. I wanted to put Ashwin under a little bit of pressure which I haven’t done this series,” Smith said.