Steve Smith dismisses India’s obvious Dubai advantage as his inexperienced Australian team bows out of Champions Trophy

The Australian captain has had his say after India knocked Australia out of the Champions Trophy having never moved from Dubai, where a tired, slow pitch played a part.

Steve Smith lamented the inexperience of the bowling group that fell a game short of the Champions Trophy final, but the Australian captain walked away adamant those players would “get bigger and better” after helping his team exceed expectations.

The Australians were undone by the “best chaser in the game” as Virat Kohli helped steer his team to a semi-final victory on a Dubai wicket Smith labelled “tired” and “slow”, in stark contrast to those they played on in Pakistan in the pool games.

Even in defeat, having produced the best score on the Dubai pitch, making 264 before India chased it down on the back of Kohli’s 84 from 98 balls, Smith refused to concede the strong advantage their opponents had by having all their matches at the same venue.

“I’m not buying into it. I think it is what it is. India obviously played some really good cricket here,” he said after the defeat.

“The surface kind of suits their style with the spinners that they’ve got and the seamers that they have at their disposal for a wicket like that. They played well, they outplayed us and they deserve the victory.”

Australia's captain Steve Smith congratulates Virat Kohli. Picture: Ryan Lim / AFP

A surprise decision to include Cooper Connolly at the top of the order backfired, with the 21-year-old making a duck, while the spin-strong attack that included Tanveer Sangha for his first game of the tournament failed to curb the Indian batters.

The Australian slow bowlers gave up 179 runs from 31 overs, with only Adam Zampa taking two wickets and Cooper Connolly one. Zampa finished with 2-60 to end a middling tournament for the first-choice leggie.

But Smith was proud of the effort to get as deep into the tournament as the Aussies did given the absence of star bowlers Pat Cummins and Mitch Starc, having also lost Josh Hazlewood, Mitch Marsh and Marcus Stoinis on the eve of the tournament.

“I think we’ve got pretty good records in big games in ICC events and I thought the guys turned up and did a really good job,” Smith said.

“It’s obviously a bit of inexperience in our team, particularly our bowling attack. Some new guys there who I thought did a really good job as well. So, they’re going to be better for the exposure to a big event and playing against world-class players like the ones we came up against today and throughout the tournament.

“There were glimpses tonight of some really good stuff as well. There are some really good cricketers in that change room and they’re going to continue to get bigger and better.”

“So, plenty of positives to take from it.”

Smith, who top-scored for his team with 73 from 96 balls, and Alex Carey (61 from 57) looked like steering Australia to a total of more than 300 as they tamed India’s four-spinner attack, but the Aussies fell short of the kind of knockout score their inexperienced bowlers could defend.

“I think we had our opportunities throughout to post something up above 300. We were probably just that one wicket down too many at a few stages throughout the innings,” he said.

Marnus Labuschagne drops a catch off Rohit Sharma. Picture: Francois Nel/Getty Images)

“It’s clearly not the easiest wicket to bat on. The square block as a whole I think has seen a lot of cricket over the last couple of months.

“The wickets we played on (in Pakistan), they’re completely different tracks. This one’s quite slow, two-paced, took some spin. I think the Gaddafi track is arguably one of the best one-day wickets in the world for batting.

“(Kohli) I mean he’s arguably the best chaser the game has seen. He’s done it numerous times against us. He controls the tempo of the game really well, plays to his strengths and takes the game deep. I thought he played really well again tonight.”

Originally published as Steve Smith dismisses India’s obvious Dubai advantage as his inexperienced Australian team bows out of Champions Trophy