Steve Smith, the premier Australian batsman, has hinted that the fourth Test in Ahmedabad could be his final game in India. Despite this, he said he would take it series by series, as four years is long. Smith’s impressive performance in the subcontinent, particularly in Tests, is well-renowned; he has been the only current batter to score a century on Indian soil since touring India in 2013 for red-ball cricket.
Ahead of the deciding Test match at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Steve Smith declared that he would savour the moment and aid the Aussies in concluding the series as they envisioned. The fourth game will see Smith replace Pat Cummins and lead the visitors to a potential draw following the astonishing nine-wicket victory in Indore.
“I probably can’t see myself coming back really if I’m being realistic,” Perth Now quoted Smith as saying. “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.”
“There’s plenty of dialogue there just talking about what’s coming up, what’s important,” he continued. “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.”
Smith stood out in the 2017 Test series, scoring an incredible 499 runs across four matches. His immense success as captain in Pune that year and his victory in Indore last week have catapulted him into the upper echelons of greatness.
Steve Smith anticipated an exciting atmosphere at the enormous Ahmedabad stadium, potentially reaching up to 100000 people.
“It is a good chance of being a pretty cool atmosphere,” Smith added. “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.”