Ravichandran Ashwin’s enviable record in Tests at the Holkar Stadium could make the Australia batters rethink their strategy of playing the high-risk sweep shots, which brought about their downfall in the first two games.

Ashwin has 18 wickets in the two Tests he has played at this venue at an average of 12.5 runs.

Australia, who arrived here a week after their second-innings surrender in New Delhi, turned up for their nets session before the scheduled time. They were slammed for their tactics against Ashwin and the other Indian spinners at the Kotla with half of the side falling to poorly-executed sweep shots on a turning surface where the ball kept low as well.

Having lost the chance to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Australia looked keen to learn from their mistakes in their three-hour-long training session. Rather than going for the sweep shot, Steve Smith and the other batsmen concentrated on the basics: front-foot defence against the spinners besides stepping out to hit down the ground.

Smith and Usman Khawaja were the first ones to hit the nets and batted for more than an hour against Nathan Lyon and left-armer Matthew Kuhnemann. One of the best batters against spin in the Australian set-up, Smith’s performances have been underwhelming so far and he will be keen to correct that in this third Test of the series.

Lyon troubled both Khawaja and Smith as the duo looked determined to firm up their defence. Most of their aerial hits came off rookie Kuhnemann.

The visitors will need to trust their defence a lot more and step out regularly to unsettle the likes of Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

Pretty much at full tilt: Starc

Indore: Senior Australia pacer Mitchell Starc still feels some discomfort in his finger after snapping a tendon in a fielding mishap last December. But he expects to return to the side for the third Test against India at the Holkar Stadium beginning on Wednesday.

The left-arm quick sustained the injury to the middle finger of his bowling hand, which sidelined him from the first two Tests of the series. Alongside Starc, Australia are likely to get all-rounder Cameron Green back in the XI as well.

“There’s going to be a level of discomfort for a while, but it’s certainly good enough (to play). The ball’s coming out quite nicely and I feel I’m pretty much at full tilt,” Starc said on Monday.

“It wouldn’t be the first Test I’ve played with some sort of discomfort. If I only played when I was at 100 per cent, I would’ve only played five or 10 Tests.”

Written with Reuters inputs