India v Australia: Sunil Gavaskar heaps praises on Smith's conduct

Indian legend and former opener Sunil Gavaskar has praised the current Australian skipper Steve Smith for his behaviour in the recently concluded Test series.

Smith was a focal point throughout the series with the bat amassing a total of 499 runs with an average of above 70 with three hundred in just four tests. Smith had got the better of his counterpart Virat Kohli in terms of run scored in the series.

Smith and Kohli had a running verbal battle throughout the entirety of the Second Test, after which the latter accused Smith of violating the rules of the game.

Smith responded to the controversy referring it to as incident of “brain fade”. An edited photo surfaced around to post the third Test which caused a wave of outrage from the Indian camp. The photo showed Smith celebrating Kohli’s dismissal by grabbing his shoulder to mock the Indian captain’s injury.

It was later proved that Smith’s hand was on his teammate’s shoulder and not mocking Kohli’s injury. Smith took the opportunity after the deciding Test to extend his apology to Team India for his reactions throughout the series.

Smith mentioned that the emotions got the better of him during the entirety of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Smith said “I’ve been very intense and in my own little bubble and at times I’ve let my emotions and actions just falter a little bit and I apologise for that throughout this series.

The sentiment was not well received by the Indian camp, who played down Smith’s reasons behind his outrageous behaviour at times. Gavaskar, however, felt that the sentiment shown by the Aussie skipper after the series was honest and genuine.

“Steve Smith is a big man to admit that he has made a mistake,” Sunil Gavaskar said on India news channel NDTV.

“My respect for him has gone even higher for admitting that he was wrong.” He concluded