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'Go for it': Steve Smith has no objection to Australia sledging India

The Border-Gavaskar series commences on February 23 in Pune.

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Australia captain Steve Smith with teammates arrives at the international airport in Mumbai on Monday.
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Australia captain Steve Smith's first press conference after touching down in India was on Valentine's Day. However, there promises to be no love lost between the two teams during the four-match series.

India-Australia encounters are never short of mind games, off-field banter and on-field sledging. Be it Michael Slater's 'moment of madness' – as the late Peter Roebuck put it – against Rahul Dravid in 2001, Sourav Ganguly making Steve Waugh wait for the toss the same year, the Andrew Symonds-Harbhajan Singh 'monkeygate' in 2007 or the Virat Kohli-David Warner duel in 2014-15, there's no shortage of drama.

And, there seem to be no signs of winds of change.

“Each of our individuals play the way they play. If that means people want to get into a battle verbally, if that gets the best of out them, then go for it,” Australia captain Steve Smith said on Tuesday when asked if they will continue to be their aggressive self.

The Australian team is known for its sledging, often using it as a tactic to rattle the opposition. But this Indian team under Virat Kohli is a different beast altogether. Far from being bogged down, Kohli and his boys are sure to return the favour in equal measure, if not more, should they get it.

No wonder Smith has put a bit of a rider to go with the on-field aggression that any of his players might want to show.

"It's all about us making sure that as individuals, we're in the right mindset to go out and succeed. If guys want to get into those kind of battles, then go for it. But in the end, it's about us playing on skill, and making sure that our skills are in the best place for us to succeed in these conditions," he added.

And one man who the Aussies must steer clear of angering if they hope to do well in the series is the Indian captain. If Kohli is sublime under normal circumstances, he is scary when spurred on. The 2014-15 series would have taught Australia just that, with Kohli scoring heaps of runs in the five-match Test series Down Under after being at the receiving end of Australia's sledging.

The visitors are thus busy scratching their brains to find ways to stop the Indian run machine. Silently.

"Yes, we're trying to form a game plan, but I'm not going to tell you what it is," Smith said. "He's obviously a world-class player, and he has been batting extremely well. He has scored four double centuries in his last four series. So, he's obviously a big player for India, along with some of their other batters."

Talking of big players for India, another humungous one is Ravichandran Ashwin. Fresh off collecting his 250th Test wicket in record quick time, the off-spinner will pose the single biggest challenge for the visitors from the Indian spin department.

"All of our batters are going to have game plans to try and counteract what Ashwin does," Smith said.

"Obviously he's a world-class bowler, he took 250 Test wickets just a couple of days ago. So, he's a world-class bowler, and we know he's going to be difficult to face on this tour. But the guys are going to formulate plans to be able to play him and get him out of the game as much as possible. But yes, he's a world-class performer," the skipper added.

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