IND vs AUS: Steve Smith 'shocked' by Matthew Hayden's 'un-Australian' comment for batsman

Steve Smith called out legendary Australian opener Matthew Hayden for his cryptic remarks on Peter Handscomb during Australia’s memorable 9-wicket win against India in the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Speaking at the pre-match press conference ahead of the fourth Test in Ahmedabad, Smith revealed he was disappointed on coming to know about Hayden’s ‘un-Australian’ remark for Handscomb.

While commentating on Star Sports’ live broadcast of the third Test, Hayden said, “[Handscomb's] strike rate of under 20 means that you are not going anywhere, and the scoreboard is not going anywhere, and that's a product of some really tough batting conditions ... he was sort of like a sitting duck in many ways. It's almost un-Australian. I don't want anyone out there to think that I'm overly criticising Pete, I'm not. It's just not quite attacking enough. It's such a tricky balance”.

"Disappointed to see some of the comments last Test match around him"

Meanwhile, shedding light on Hayden’s comments, during the pre-match presser, Smith said the 31-year-old had enjoyed an ‘outstanding’ series. “The first two Test matches [31 and 72 not out] in the first innings of both and left pretty much stranded. I was pretty disappointed to see some of the comments last Test match around him not playing the Australian way. He's batted the same in the first innings throughout the whole series”.

“So I was shocked to see some comments about the way he was playing, because I think him and 'Uzzy' [Usman Khawaja] have probably been arguably our two best batters in this series,” the stand-in Aussie skipper added. Batting for Australia in their first batting innings during the third Test in Indore, Handscomb showed his grittiness by scoring only 19 runs off 98 balls. In the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023, Peter Handscomb has scored over 130 runs at an average of 32.75.

Meanwhile, the Rohit Sharma-led Indian team was bowled out on the score of 109 runs, while Australia notched up 197 runs, courtesy of Usman Khawaja’s 60 off 147. In their second innings, India scored 163 runs and set a low target of 76 runs for the Aussies. The match concluded on Day 3 itself, as the visitor cruised to the victory by nine wickets.