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Smith challenges Warner to go big in India
- Updated: January 24, 2017
Australia captain Steven Smith has challenged his deputy David Warner to do a Karun Nair and go on to make the sort of monumental scores that will be essential if the tourists are to have any hope of besting India at home next month.
In a frank interview with ESPNcricinfo, Smith also declared his side’s recent aggressive batting approach in Asian conditions to be “rubbish” and pinpointed the left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe as critical to Australia’s chances.
Warner, who made his second century in as many matches on his SCG home turf on Sunday, also led Sunrisers Hyderabad to the 2016 IPL title, but has not reached three figures in an overseas Test for more than two years. Smith said that after both captain and deputy failed to post centuries before last year’s Sri Lanka series had been decided, the team’s senior batsmen had to set their sights on hundreds – big ones.
“It’s pretty important that our senior players step up in those conditions,” Smith said. “It’s something we didn’t do overly well in Sri Lanka and we didn’t get the results that we wanted there. I’m going to do it differently to Davey, you don’t want to get rid of someone’s natural flair and the way they play. But if he gets to a hundred it might be about knuckling down again and going big, get 200 or 300, like Karun Nair did a few weeks ago.
“Those are the big scores that set your team up, so we are just being hungry and willing to keep going and not let up. I think we’ve been …
