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Australia star Steve Smith concedes he is preparing for what is likely to be his final Test on Indian soil.
Smith will lead Australia for a second straight Test in Pat Cummins’ absence, with the fast bowler having returned to Sydney to be with his seriously ill mother.
Approaching his 96th Test, Smith is unlikely to be back in India when Australia tour again in 2027. The 33-year-old has loved playing in India, scoring three centuries on Australia’s 2017 trip, and said it was his favourite place to captain in the world.
“I probably can’t see myself coming back really, if I’m being realistic,” Smith said. “But we’ll wait and see, take it day by day, four years is a long time. I’ll enjoy this one, hopefully it’s a great crowd and we can entertain them and ideally finish the series really well.”
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Australia could boast a dramatically different team in 2027, with Smith and the majority of the pace attack likely to be retired.
Steve Smith in a rage as he walks off in Delhi. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Smith said it was important Australia focused on the rest of this year – the Ashes and ODI World Cup.
“There’s plenty of dialogue there just talking about what’s coming up, what’s important. You want your best players available in particular for the big tournaments or big series.
“It’s just about going from series to series and seeing where everyone is at mentally and physically and trying to put the best team on the park as much as possible.”
If it is Smith’s final red-ball match in India it will be a spectacular way to go out.
Australia plan to embrace the expected chaos of a political meeting that threatens to overshadow the start of the fourth and final Test against India.
The opening day of the Border-Gavaskar series finale in Ahmedabad promises to be one of the most bizarre moments in cricket history when an estimated 110,000 people turn up to the stadium named after India’s current prime minister.
Narendra Modi will welcome Australia’s leader Anthony Albanese to the colosseum named in the Indian PM’s honour to celebrate “75 years of friendship through cricket”.
Preparations are already well under way inside the stadium, with signs and posters of Modi and Albanese being set up everywhere, even in place of where a sight screen should be.
The political pair will take part in a series of events before the Test, including being involved in an opening ceremony.
But rather than be daunted by the thought of playing in front of a world record crowd for a day of Test cricket, Smith is excited by the prospect.
The record attendance for a single day stands at 91,112 from the Boxing Day Test between Australia and England at the MCG in 2013-14.
“It is a good chance of being a pretty cool atmosphere,” Smith said on Wednesday. “A lot of the guys haven’t seen this stadium before. They’ve walked in today and it’s huge
“If we get somewhere up around that (110,000) number, it’d be unbelievable, the atmosphere. We know how loud some of these grounds are over here in India, so if there’s 100,000-plus out there, it’s going to be pretty loud.
“It’d be really just a great vibe and atmosphere out there to play in front of.”
Adding another layer of unpredictability into the mix, Australia remain unsure what pitch they will play on with India’s pesky curators preparing two surfaces.
India coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma undertook lengthy inspections of the centre wicket when the hosts trained at the Ahmedabad ground on Tuesday.
But after securing a famous nine-wicket win in Indore last week, Australia will back themselves to level the series 2-2 no matter which pitch is rolled out.
Travis Head and Steve Smith inspect the pitch in Ahmedabad. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
“It’d be a huge achievement for the group, or any touring team that comes here to India and wins two Test matches,” Smith said.
“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 positive for this group.”
Australia will likely enter the match with an unchanged XI after star quick Mitchell Starc and allrounder Cameron Green were crucial inclusions in Indore.
But Smith concedes the pitch will dictate whether they take their three spinners – Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy and Matt Kuhnemann – into battle for a third consecutive Test.
Before the second Test in Delhi, Australia had played three frontline spinners in the same match just twice this century – in Bangladesh in 2006 and 2017.
“We’ll have a look (on Wednesday) and we’ll reassess, but it could be we name the team at the toss,” Smith said.
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