IND vs AUS | Would like to see Steve Smith bat more against spinners, opines Harbhajan Singh

Australian batsman Steve Smith has been in tremendous form in the on-going series against India, scoring two back-to-back 62-ball hundreds to help his team reach massive totals on both occasions. Indian bowlers have so far looked clueless against the former Australian skipper as they have struggled to even make him sweat for his runs with all their plans going failing miserably. 

While the Indian bowlers are yet to devise a plan for Smith’s dismissal, veteran Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh has suggested a strategy to send the Aussie packing. Harbhajan reckoned that making Smith bat against spinners could be the key to his wicket as he likes the ball coming onto his bat. 

“I would like to see Smith batting against spinners. You know, Yuzvendra Chahal or maybe Kuldeep Yadav coming in, in the side. They both bowling in tandem and bowl 7-8 overs of spin when Smith comes in. Steve Smith is someone who likes pace on the bat if you take that away from him for some time that might be the key point to get him out,” Harbhajan said, as quoted by Hindustan Times. 

Yuzvendra Chahal, who had an impeccable IPL 2020, has been mute so far in the Australian series, struggling to pick up wickets or stop the flows of runs, scalping just one 1 wicket at an economy of 8.42 in the first two ODIs. Harbhajan opined that he sees nothing wrong with the leg-spinner and it is just the difference in bowling conditions from what he got in UAE. He advised Chahal to keep working on his craft and bowl a little slower to extract some turn from the batting-friendly wickets.

“I don’t see anything wrong going with Chahal. It’s the conditions, it’s purely the different conditions what they get in Australia and what they were getting in UAE,” he said. 

“It’s just as Virat said, Australians know their wicket better than others and they are taking their chances against him . So, my advice to Chahal would be to keep working harder on his game and bowl a little bit slower in the air if possible and you might see some turn on the wicket.” 

In the hope to avoid a clean sweep in the series, India will take on Australia in the third and the final ODI of the series on December 2 in Canberra.