We've got talent to challenge India, says Smith

Australia did not have the best of start to the tour as it lost by 26 runs via Duckworth-Lewis method in the rain-curtailed first ODI in Chennai last Sunday. But Smith believes the world champion has 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. I think if we had 50 overs, the guys would have a chance to get into their groove and play with the right tempo,” Smith said on the eve of the second ODI at the Eden Gardens. 

“(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,” he added. 

In the first ODI, India made a challenging score of 281 for seven but intermittent showers hampered Australia’s chase as it was set a revised target of 164 in 21 overs. The visitor eventually fell short by 26 runs. 

Smith begs to differ with his predecessor Michael Clarke, who 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 said.