Steve Smith believe Australia will face an uphill task against an upbeat Indian team

With the India-Australia series just around the corner, visitors skipper Steve Smith has admitted that the team from down under will face an uphill task against the upbeat Indian team. The two extremely competitive teams are set to play a limited-overs series against each other comprising of five ODIs and three T20I. Australia comes off a challenging Test series against Bangladesh which they somehow managed to pull level. On the other hand, the Men in Blue enjoyed a successful tour of Sri Lanka, wherein they whitewashed the hosts in all the three formats.

India decimated Sri Lanka in a historic 9-0 victory, winning every single match on the tour. They have been playing some really good cricket for a while now and Smith believes that the Indian team will be hard to beat. Whenever these two teams meet, fans get to witness some intense on-field banter which spices up the entire contest and this time would be no surprise as well.

Smith shares his views on India’s spin-laden attack

“I think it will be played in good spirit. It’s always a hard contest playing in India. We are excited by the challenge of playing over here,” speaking about the upcoming challenge, Smith was quoted as saying by ANI,

When quizzed as to how the Australian batsmen would be tackling the Indian spin trio of Axar Patel, Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, the Aussie skipper said, “It’s a completely different format to Test cricket. I think Axar Patel has done pretty well. Chahal is there in the squad and Kuldeep Yadav who is a good bowler. So, they certainly have got some really good spin options. We have got to play them well throughout the series.”

The current statistics also tips the scales slightly in favour of the hosts. Earlier in the year, Australia suffered a 1-2 series loss in the four-Test series. In 2013, the last time the Kangaroos toured the subcontinent for a limited-over series, they faced 2-3 series defeat in the seven-match series.

The first ODI of the bilateral series is set to be played on September 17, in Chennai. The following ODI fixtures will be played in Kolkata, Indore, Bangalore, and Nagpur respectively.