India need to find a way to dismiss Steven Smith, says Sunil Gavaskar

New Delhi Former captain Sunil Gavaskar yesterday said if India were to win the ongoing fivematch ODI series in Australia the visitors need to find a way to dismiss home team skipper Steven Smith earlySunil Gavaskar PicAFPChasing an imposing 310run target Australia rode on captain Smiths fluent 149 to script a comfortable fivewicket victory over India in a highscoring first cricket onedayer to take a 10 lead at Perth yesterday Smith again turned out to be Indias nemesis pacing his innings to perfection His sequence of scores against the Men In Blue across formats now reads 162 not out 52 not out 133 28 192 14 117 71 47 105309 was never an easy score to chase because you are required to chase more than six runs an over and they also lost two wickets pretty early Gavaskar said India really need to find a way to get rid of Australian skipper Steven Smith They have not found out an way to dismiss him last year and the first match of the new seriessuggests they are still struggling to find an way to get the Australian skipper out cheaply Unless they do that the Australians are going to score big runs he saidHe Smith really loves Indian bowling he does not seem to get out to Indian bowlers He is going to be very crucial to containing Australia he told NDTV Gavaskar lauded debutant Barinder Sran 356 who managed to create an impression with early breakthroughs and said the leftarm pacer can create trouble for Smith if he can add the late inswinging delivery to his armouryThe former captain advised Sran to take legendary Wasim Akram and Ashish Nehras advise to further hone his skills It does not matter how quick you are you must be able to pick wickets and he Sran is getting wickets I think if you can develop the ball that comes into the righthander it would be greatSpeak to Wasim Akram and try to pick his brains because I feel that is one ball which will create problems for Smith because he shuffles so much towards his off stump The ball coming in late can trap him leg before or bowl him behind his legs So thats something he needs to develop Maybe talk to Ashish Nehra because he has a terrific incoming delivery said the legendary batsmanGavaskar said the notion of WACA wicket being one of the quickest was turning out to be a myth and the ongoing series between India and Australia would be a battle of batsmen Perth pitch is little overrated at times being fast bouncy So clearly the pitches in Australia are now very good for battingIts going to be a battle of batsmen because pitches in Australia are now very good for batting Once you negotiate the new ball in Australia and South Africa the pitches turn out to be terrific to bat So my honest advice to the Indian batsmen would be to try and capitalise on these pitches score as many as they can Clearly you need to look at 350 as the minimum to score Gavaskar saidHe however credited Australian batting unit for setting up their run chase to perfection 309 was a good total When you lose you always tend to say may be another 20 runs because the match finished in the last over But thats always in hindsight I do believe the straight boundaries at Perth are very short so a littledisadvantage for the Indian spinners in particularBut you need to give credit to the Australians They batted very well And you also need to give credit to Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli Gavaskar said Rohits 163ball 171 not out was the best by an Indian today while vicecaptain Kohli also impressed with a 91run effort as the duo added 207 runs for the second wicket to set the foundation for Indias totalAsked if India were short of runs Gavaskar refused to put the blame for the loss on the batsmen If you lose wickets early then it puts pressure on the batsmen to follow The kind of form Rohit and Virat are in I think India need to keep same kind of momentum I dont think you cant blame the batsmen for the way they batted they batted really well he saidIt would be interesting to see if India are chasing against the inexperienced Australian bowling because the kind of bowling India have in these kind of pitches even a 350 score may be gettable for Australia Gavaskar also advocated the idea of using pink balls in limitedover matches to bring balance between bat and ballThe white does nothing for bowlers I actually call it a nothing doing ball What could be interesting is that with the success of pink ball it may used in limited over cricket to even the balance between bat and ball It might be interesting to try pink ball in limited over cricket It needs to be experimented at domestic level Maybe the IPL can have a few matches where they can experiment with the pink ball in the initial stages and see how it goes he said