New Delhi: There can never be a dull moment when two of the world's top teams are engaged in possibly one of the most enthralling contests in Test cricket in recent times.
The No. 1 ranked Indian side were expected to whitewash Australia in the 2016-17 series.
Captains Steve Smith and Virat Kohli were expected to grab headlines throughout the series for their run-making abilities. They did but for different reasons.
Recalling the incidents from the Border-Gavaskar series in India earlier this year, the Australia skipper said that it was nice to get under the skin of Indian players and that he likes to annoy them a little bit.
"I like to try and annoy them a little bit with some of my mannerisms rather than anything I say," Smith said on the Back Page Live panel show this week.
Smith was seen in an exchange of "face-making" with Ishant Sharma in the second Test at Bangalore. After Smith's defence against Ishant, the Indian pacer came up with some faces. Smith, in his response, just shook his head sideways.
"I think I got under (the Indian team's) skin on a few occasions, which was nice," Smith said. "It was a pretty heated series, playing over there in India," Smith said. "But it was a great series. We probably should have gone a little bit better than we did. But hopefully we can learn a lot from the way we played there and keep moving forward as a team."
Australia made a great start to the series, winning the first game in Pune. They lost the Bangalore Test before drawing the third Test in Ranchi. India won the Dharamsala Test to win the series 2-1.
Australia, currently in a pay dispute with Cricket Australia, are supposed to tour Bangladesh this minth month but it will happen only when the dispute is over.
"All the boys have been training and working incredibly hard and everyone's fit," Smith said. "It's actually been a good little period for us … for the international guys we don’t often get these kinds of breaks so it’s nice to get some strength work in and some fitness in to try and sustain a level for a period of time now."
