Praised for his assured captaincy in Indore, Steve Smith has been quizzed about a full-time return to the top job. But, his response to reporters was emphatic.
It comes too late to give them any chance of winning the Border Gavaskar Trophy, but confirms the sense that this a team who just needed a break to prove its worth.
Winning in India is the hardest task in cricket. Only two sides have managed it in the last decade.
Winning when the wicket was so poor and when things had gone so wrong was a triumph.
With Pat Cummins, David Warner, Josh Hazlewood and Ashton Agar back in Australia, a stand in captain, a makeshift opener and a simple Australian spinner beat the Indians at their own game.
Australia embraced the obstacles placed in its path.
Such was the magnitude of the win, Smith, who managed his bowlers magnificently, had to deflect calls that he should replace Pat Cummins.
“My time is done,” he said.
“It’s Pat’s team now. I’ve obviously been able to stand in this week, obviously in tough circumstances with Patty going home. Our thoughts are still with him back home as well.
“Look, India is a part of the world I love captaining. It’s a game of chess, every ball means something. it’s good to just move people and trying to make the batter do something different and, and just play games with them. It’s probably my favourite place in the world to captain.
“You think back home in Australia and generally you’re playing with a third slip or putting a third slip to cover or your square leg up or back or something like that.
“There’s not too much that sort of goes on with it. Sort of just stick to the same game plan and try to trust what you’re trying to do there. But this part of the world you have to be really proactive. Every ball is an event and therefore can dictate what happens after, which is something that I really love and you’ve got to be ahead of the game. So I thought I did it well this week and it was good fun.”
Smith handed his assessment of the pitch to match referee Chris Broad as partners and family gathered quietly on the players balcony after the match.
While it deserves sanction, the batsman said he enjoyed the challenges it created.
“All the wickets have spun, we haven’t gotten past three days yet so that shows that it’s been spinning from day one in all the test matches but I personally I really enjoyed playing on these kind of wickets,” he said.
“I prefer this than just a genuine flat wicket that goes five days and can be boring in stages. There’s always something happening on these wickets. You’ve got to really work hard for your runs. But it’s showed that the guys can do it. Guys can do it, you’ve got to work hard for them and you need some luck. With this one, whether it might have been a little bit too extreme, potentially from the first ball. I’m not really entirely sure, but it was still another enjoyable.”
Originally published as India v Australia: Full reaction to Australia’s third Test victory in Indore