New Delhi (Nilesh Tiwari): Former India head coach Ravi Shastri feels that Steve Smith and Virat Kohli will be “dangerous” and “hungry” for runs in the last two Test matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, even if they haven’t yet shown their dominant best. Although Smith and Kohli have each struck a century in the first three Test matches of the five-match series, they have of late struggled with the bat. Both are members of the ‘Fab Four’ group, which also contains Joe Root and Kane Williamson..
“I think they (Kohli and Smith) will have slipped down the ranks on current form because, you know, you’ve got the likes of Root taking off, there’s Williamson doing well, Harry Brook has come onto the scene; you know there are a lot of other young players pushing, but these are class players. In a situation like this, you know they’ll be dangerous because they’ll be hungry, “Shastri said.
”You see what was needed from Smith. This bloke was ready for discipline and waiting for long periods, though perhaps some might have found it strenuous initially. I am just not convinced that Virat is any different. It’s not like all those guys are out of form, and I think it is impossible for Virat to come out of this first thirty to forty minutes with discipline and sheer working,” Shastri mentioned.
India Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah(vc), Mohammed Siraj, Sarfaraz Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar, Abhimanyu Easwaran.
Australia Squad: Pat Cummins (C), Alex Carey (WK), Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Scott Boland.
