Australia won't sit easy even without R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja: Steve Smith

India's premier spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were rested from the Indian squad for the first three one-day internationals of the five-match series against Australia according to a BCCI release yesterday

Australian captain Steve Smith in Chennai yesterday. Pic/PTI

India's premier spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were rested from the Indian squad for the first three one-day internationals of the five-match series against Australia according to a BCCI release yesterday.

Currently, Ashwin is playing county cricket while Jadeja has been rested since the Test series in Sri Lanka last month. The other notable change from the squad was the omission of Mumbai speedster Shardul Thakur. Pacers Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami, who were rested after the Sri Lanka Test series, have been recalled.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja

While Team India's spin duo have been left out, Australia skipper Steve Smith felt the visitors will still not sit easy. "This is a completely different format compared to Test cricket. Axar Patel has done pretty well for them. Yuzvendra Chahal is in the squad as well. Kuldeep Yadav is a good bowler too.

"They certainly have some good spin options and we have got to play them really well throughout the series," Smith told reporters during a press conference in Chennai
yesterday.

"The ODI group has played spin pretty well for a little while. We are still learning in the Test format and are trying to improve. We are coming from a challenging tour of Bangladesh," Smith said.

"I'm not sure that the ODI wickets will present quite as much as spin perhaps as some of the Test wickets. We have to wait and see and adapt to the conditions accordingly," he added.

India ODI squad
Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami

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