One of the highlights of India's victorious 2-1 win at home in the 2017 Border-Gavaskar series was the hilarious impersonation of then Australian skipper, Steve Smith, by Indian pacer Ishant Sharma.
“It was a close game. Bhavnaaon mein behke aadmi kuch bhi karta hai (People do all sorts of things when driven by emotions),” the India quick told Mayank Agarwal in a BCCI video.
Australia had beaten India by 333 runs in the opener in Pune, a defeat that broke India's streak of consecutive wins at home. The defeat also marks India's only Test match loss at home since the series defeat against England in 2012. Australia took an early 1-0 lead in the contest riding on a century from Smith and impeccable bowling performance from Steve O'Keefe. But India bounced back to win Test in Bengaluru and Dharamsala to win the series.
“We had lost the Pune Test, and the series was on the line. The wicket on Bengaluru had its ups-and-downs. You try your best to upset the batsman. He was playing, and doing all sorts of things. I tried my best to upset him. I knew if I could get his wicket, we can win the match. So, I was trying to get him out of his comfort zone. I knew if he became comfortable, he could win the match,” Ishant added.
Earlier in 2015, Ishant had landed in trouble for his shenanigans, with ICC handing him a one-match ban. But he added that captain Virat Kohli always backs him.
“He is an aggressive captain; he loves it when you show aggression and he doesn’t tell you anything for that. He always says just get me the wicket and do whatever you want. He just tells me not to get banned. So, when I was banned in Sri Lanka he came again and said do everything you want but just don’t get banned.”
