‘Pretty disappointed’: Steve Smith’s support for Peter Handscomb after Matthew Hayden’s ‘un-Australian’ call

Australian stand-in captain Steve Smith has firmly refuted claims teammate Peter Handscomb played an “un-Australian” innings during the third Test in Indore.

During the third Test between India and Australia, cricket legend Matthew Hayden branded Handscomb’s performance as “un-Australian” as the Victorian combined with Cameron Green for a 40-run partnership for the fifth wicket during Australia’s first innings, ensuring the visitors were unscathed for the first hour of day two.

Handscomb was particularly defensive at the crease, hitting one boundary in 98 deliveries before falling victim to Ravichandran Ashwin for 19 – the rest of his runs came from singles.

He repeatedly prodded forward and blocked out India’s world-class spinners, carefully shifting onto the back foot whenever they dropped short, cautious of the wicket’s variable bounce.

“He was very, very defensive with his mindset,” Hayden said in commentary.

“His strike rate of under 20 means that you are not going anywhere, and the scoreboard is not going anywhere, and that’s a product of some really tough batting conditions … he was sort of like a sitting duck in many ways.

“It’s almost un-Australian. I don’t want anyone out there to think that I’m overly criticising Pete, I’m not. It’s just not quite attacking enough. It’s such a tricky balance.”

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Smith confessed he was “pretty disappointed” with the remarks, jumping to Handscomb’s defence.

“I think he’s been outstanding,” Smith said.

“The first two Test matches in the first innings of both and left pretty much stranded,” Smith said.

“If one of the other top seven were able to get in a partnership with him, things could certainly be different.

“He batted beautifully in the first two, he’s stuck to his method, he’s trusted his defence, and then scored off balls that were either overpitched or too short and played them off the back foot.

“His method has proved it’s worked in difficult conditions.

“So I was shocked to see some comments about the way he was playing because I think him and Uzzy (Khawaja) have probably been arguably our two best batters in this series.”

Handscomb is Australia’s third-leading run-scorer of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to date with 128 at 32.00.

The 31-year-old, who was recalled to the Australian squad in a horses-for-courses selection, scored 31 and 72 not out in the first innings of the Nagpur and Delhi Tests.