Smith ponders 'French cricket' approach

Skipper Steve Smith won't be afraid to adopt a "French cricket" mindset in Australia's third Test against India, should the Ranchi pitch demand it.

Quick Single: Duelling skippers face veteran peacemaker

Smith failed to fire with the bat in Australia's 75-run loss in Bengaluru, where the hosts levelled the four-Test series.

The 27-year-old is comfortably the side's best batsman and has a knack of scoring freely.

But his first innings in the second Test was an uncharacteristic struggle, with the right-hander scoring eight off 52 balls.

Smith says India pacemen Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav and a pitch playing plenty of tricks forced him to take a defensive approach.

"It was just so difficult to score, against the quicks in particular," Smith said.

"I was always afraid of the one shooting low like in the second innings (when Smith was trapped lbw by an unplayable delivery that hardly bounced).

"It was about trying to almost play French cricket. If the ball was on my stumps, try and cover that as well as I could.

"It (not scoring) was a credit to the Indian quicks, I thought they bowled very well. Their line and lengths were spectacular really throughout the whole match."

The surface in Ranchi is expected to be consistently slow and low, without the variable bounce on offer in the second Test.

"It will shoot quite low ... I've never seen a wicket that's looked quite as dark as that one is. It looks like there's mud sort of rolled together," Smith said.

Image Id: 5CC907AAD3274FF5B552C5D0E69A7509 Image Caption: The pitch in Ranchi // Twitter - @AlisterNicho

"Guys just have to adapt and play according to what the wicket entails.

"It's about summing up the best way to play and try and get as many runs as we can to build the first innings."

Quick Single: Smith surprised but unfazed by Ranchi pitch

The dry deck won't suit Pat Cummins, who is set to play his first Test since 2001, but Smith backed the express paceman to trouble India's batsmen.

"He's got some good variations. Watching him bowl yesterday, he bowled these cutters on the wicket and they were actually ragging," Smith said.

"He's got some good skills ... the extra pace is always nice."

Smith added every member of the attack would need to step up and fill the void left by injured spearhead Mitchell Starc, who has returned home with a foot injury.

"When you lose someone of the class and calibre of Mitchell Starc, it's always difficult," he said.

Quick Single: Stoinis, Maxwell vying for Test spot

"But we're confident the rest of the bowling group can do the job to take 20 wickets."

Test Squads

India (for third and fourth Tests): Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandaran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Karun Nair, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund.

Australia: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Stephen O'Keefe, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade

Australia's schedule in India

Feb 23-27, First Test, Pune - Australia won by 333 runs.

Mar 4-8, Second Test, Bengaluru - India won by 75 runs.

Mar 16-20, Third Test, Ranchi

Mar 25-29, Fourth Test, Dharamsala