IND vs AUS: Steve Smith left surprised by Rohit Sharma bold statement ahead of 3rd Test

Australia's stand-in captain Steve Smith admitted to being surprised by India skipper Rohit Sharma's comment ahead of the third Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Rohit Sharma said that his team is thinking to lay out a pace-friendly pitch in Ahmedabad to replicate the English conditions if they win the 3rd Test match in Indore. Rohit said it will help them prepare for the World Test Championship final, which is slated to be held in England and will most likely feature India and Australia. 

'I guess we'll wait and see': Steve Smith

Reacting to Rohit's comments, Smith said it surprised him because they are not going to let India easily finish the job in Indore, which they are planning to do in order to book a berth in the final of the World Test Championship for the second consecutive time. If India can manage to hand another defeat to the visitors in the 3rd Test match, they will fly to England for the WTC final in June. India will have only 8 days to prepare for the tournament because most of their players will be busy playing in IPL 2023 until May 28. 

"I don't know. It does [surprise me] I think. I guess we'll wait and see. Hopefully, we don't let them get the job done here and we'll see what happens from there. We'll wait and see what happens in this Test match and we'll see what happens after that," Smith said when asked to comment on Rohit's opinion of the third Test match in Indore and the subsequent Ahmedabad Test.

"There is definitely a possibility of that. We have already spoken about it. We need to get the guys ready for it. The important one is Shardul Thakur because he comes into the planning for us. We don't know how ready he is since he has just gotten married. We don't know how many overs he has bowled. But that thought process is definitely there. If we do what we do here and get the result we want, we might think of doing something different in Ahmedabad for sure," Rohit said earlier on Tuesday.

The third Test match between India and Australia is scheduled to begin on March 1. India are currently 2-0 up in the four-match contest thanks to their massive victories in Nagpur and Delhi. Smith will captain the Australian side in absence of Pat Cummins, who has flown back home to see his ailing mother. 

Image: AP/BCCI