New Delhi: Wrist spin has been a bit of...or more of a concern for the touring Australian side as mentioned by them prior to the start of the limited-overs series in Chennai. But Aussie skipper Steve Smith reckons that the Men in Blue have more in their arsenal than just deceptive wrist spin action.
Since Kuldeep Yadav's brilliance at Dharamsala in the Border-Gavaskar series decider, wrist-spin has sort of turned out to be Virat Kohli's preference policy in squad selection. Apart from ICC Champions Trophy, each of India's squad, thereafter, has had at least one wrist spinner in the playing XI. And well, it proved its worth. You take the Windies tour, then the Sri Lanka series. And ergo, the fear.
The fear that it can once again wobble Australian batting lineup. Local boy KK Jiyas was roped in to make the visitors well aware of such deception. But it didn't seem to work much in favour of the team from Down Under. Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav bagged five wickets in total as the Aussies suffered a 26-run defeat (via DLS method) in a rain-intervened match at M Chidambaram Stadium.
Smith was disappointed for a failure in his plan, but has surely warned his side that the hosts have got more than just wrist spin action to scare his team away. "We certainly haven't just been focusing on wrist spin. We've been facing our fast bowlers in the nets and other net bowlers as well," Smith said.
"There hasn't just been that focus on spin bowling, that's for sure. India have some quality seamers as well," he added.
The skipper's point seems valid enough as it was Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya who had castled down their top-order lineup. Bhuvneshwar Kumar also played his part bowling a few knuckle balls.
"The guys knew what they were going to come with before this game. Everyone had seen the footage and watched a bit of the series in Sri Lanka where they bowled quite a few (knuckle balls)," said Smith.
"It wasn't any surprise to us. Batting for 20 overs is difficult when you're losing wickets and trying to go quite hard.
"It didn't work out as we would have liked but we've got to turn things around in a couple of days' time in Kolkata," he added.
Talking about their strategy for the second ODI match to be played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Thursday, Smith said, "No pressure as such. We don`t think a lot about what`s happening. We go by the situation of the wicket and since both of us are attacking, we go for wickets.
"Wrist spinners are mostly attacking and when your captain is so attacking you get more freedom to attack," he added.
