Australian skipper Steve Smith feels it will be a huge achievement if his team can draw the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series. Australia was outplayed in the first two Test matches at Nagpur and Delhi as they lost by an innings and 132 runs, and six wickets respectively.
However, the visitors made a resounding comeback in the series, winning the third Test match at Indore by nine wickets. Australia looked down and out after the first two Test matches but they were able to come up with a collective show in Indore.
Matthew Kuhnemann returned with career-best figures of 5-16 in the first innings to help his team dismiss India for 109 runs. Subsequently, Usman Khawaja scored 60 runs to help his team take the lead of 88 runs, and then Nathan Lyon took eight wickets in the second essay.
Meanwhile, Australia had last won a Test series on Indian shores back in 2004 under the captaincy of Adam Gilchrist.
On the other hand, Steve Smith was spot on with his field placements and bowling changes as he was really active as a leader on the field.
“I think it’d be a huge achievement for this group, or any touring team, that comes here to India and wins two Test matches,” Smith was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do it earlier in the series and give ourselves a chance to win but to draw the series here would be a huge plus and positive.”
The Ahmedabad curator has prepared two pitches and Smith doesn’t know which one will be used on Thursday.
“The short answer is no. There’s two prepared,” Smith was quoted as saying by Cricket Australia when asked if he knew which pitch would be used.
On the other hand, Indian head coach Rahul Dravid also inspected the pitch which has black soil.
“I don’t know why two strips are covered,” Dravid said. “I never asked him why he covered the other one. But I don’t know what that was. We are playing on this one, I have no idea about the other one.”
The fourth Test starts Thursday in Ahmedabad.
