Australia captain Steve Smith on Wednesday backed his teammates to deliver and said the visitors have enough talent at their disposal to challenge India in the remaining games of the ongoing five-match ODI series. Australia did not have the best of start to the tour as they lost by 26 runs via Duckworth-lewis method in the rain-curtailed first ODI in Chennai last Sunday.
But Smith believes the world champions have a quality squad to bounce back in the series.
"Obviously, the other day it was more like a T20 game for us, especially while we were batting," Smith said on the eve of the second ODI at the Eden Gardens here on Thursday. "I think if we had 50 overs, the guys would have a chance to get into their groove and play with the right tempo. (But) we still believe in these guys. We think they've got a lot of talent and we've got a team here that can hopefully challenge India in the next couple of games."
In the first ODI, India made a challenging of 281 for seven but intermittent showers hampered Australia's chase as they were set a revised target of 164 in 21 overs. The visitors eventually fell short by 26 runs. Smith begs to differ with his predecessor Michael Clarke, who on Tuesday remarked that the current skipper was facing a challenging time in his leadership.
"I don't think so. I'm not in a bad place with my captaincy. Obviously results haven't been the way we would have liked and that's something we are trying to rectify.
smith’s century of ODIs
From starting as a leg-break bowler to scoring a hundred in a high-pressure World Cup semi-final, Smith feels he has matured quite a lot as he gears up to play his landmark 100th ODI.
"I think I have evolved a lot as a white ball player. When I first started playing one-day cricket, my first 30-odd games, I played more as a bowler. I had to change a bit there. I've been batting at No 3 now for a while now," Smith said when asked about his feelings ahead of milestone match. "I had to find the right tempo for the game, whether it's hitting boundaries or finding the right time to hit a right boundary. You learn as you play. It's pretty exciting to play my 100th game tomorrow," Smith said.