Steve Smith-led Australian team is touring India for five ODIs and three T20Is this month and Smith has said that the bilateral series will be played in “good spirit.”

“I am not too concerned about the differences with Kohli. He is obviously a very good player and has a phenomenal ODI record. Hopefully, we can keep him quiet as much as possible in this series. If we do that then hopefully it can go a long way in us having success on this tour,” Smith told.

“I think it’ll be played in good spirit,” the skipper said on Sunday .

Australia visited India in 2013 that for a seven-match ODI series and this bilateral tie emerged out to be a huge run-feast. Australia stood on the losing side then.

“It’s always a hard-fought contest playing against India and we’re excited by the challenge of playing over here. “Looking back to the last one-day tour of India, I wasn’t on it in 2013, but it was a big run-fest from memory with pretty flat wickets and big totals. We’ll see what we’re presented with but it could be the same again,” he added.
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A number of Australian players are a part of the Indian Premier League and therefore, share good bond with Indian cricketers. David Warner has played alongside Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar while captain Smith too has shared the dressing room with MS Dhoni and Ajinkya Rahane.

Australia recently drew the two-match Test series against Bangladesh and talking about facing spin in Asia, the skipper insisted that this is a different format and his team would try to improve from previous performances.

“This is a completely different format compared to Test cricket. Axar Patel has done well 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 said.
“I think the One-day group has played spin pretty well for a little while. Obviously, we are still learning in the Test format and trying to improve. We are coming from a challenging tour of Bangladesh.

“Obviously the guys are learning and trying to improve. 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.

Darren Lehmann has taken a break from his coaching schedule and Smith suggested, “There are no issues. We will be fine. David Saker has been with us for a while now. It was announced about six months ago that Darren was going to take rest from this series and Saker was going to take over.”

“I hope so, he has got a pretty good record for us in the last year or two. He has got some experience playing in the IPL. We know what to expect from Zamps. If he gets his opportunity, he can hopefully have some success on this tour,” he said.

Talking about preparations for Ashes, Smith said that his team has got ample time to prepare.

“I know before the last Ashes series there was a one-day series here as well. There is plenty of time when we get back home and play some Shield games also and get ready for the Ashes.”

“Sri has been really good. He has great knowledge about how to play in these conditions. He has helped the players, particularly the spin bowlers. He has great knowledge of the grounds in india. He has been really good for this group,” he said.

Australia ODI squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa. Australia T20 squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Jason Behrendorff, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa.