India’s ace all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin lauded Steve Smith for his brilliant leadership skills. Under the captaincy of Steve Smith, Australia defeated India in the third and final ODI by 21 runs and clinched the series. Ashwin then took to his Twitter handle, and wrote, “Steve Smith and captaincy is a match made in heaven.” Australia’s regular skipper Pat Cummins could not play the series because of his mother’s demise, Steve Smith came to the fore and did wonders as a skipper.
Earlier, in the Border-Gavaskar Test series, Smith took up the charge for Australia in the third Test in Indore. His skills were lauded as the visitors made a fantastic comeback by beating them in Indore Test after going down 0-2 in the first two games. In the ODI series too, Australia lost the first match but then Smith’s brilliant leadership helped Kangaroos make a comeback in sealing the series.
Coming to the match, Indian batters once again got choked and were restricted to a total of 248 runs while chasing a tricky 270. Australian spinners outplayed the Indian batters as Adam Zappa picked 4 for 45 runs and Aston Agar took two for 41 runs and gave away just 86 runs in the 20 overs between them. This is the first time since 2019 that India lost a series on their soil.
“It's been an enjoyable tour. We didn't play our best cricket, good enough to get over the line. This wicket was entirely different, we left a few out there with the bat. The spinners bowled beautifully, really good performance. (Turning point) It was a real grind in the field. The way the tail stuck and got us to 269, got us to a nice total,” Smith said after winning the final ODI.