Australia on Friday unsurprisingly named an unchanged eleven-member squad for the second Test match in Bengaluru, which begins on Saturday.

“For us it’s about continuing to do the same things, and make sure our plans are in place for both innings, and they can change,” said captain Steven Smith. “In the first innings, guys were a little bit more defensive then once we got a bit ahead of the game and conditions got a bit more difficult, that’s when you probably need to pull out some different shots.”

The Australian captain was upbeat about his team’s chances after their big win in Pune in the first Test and pointed out that his Indian counterparts would be under renewed pressure, considering pre-series predictions that they were favourites to win.

Much attention has also focused on the nature of the pitch at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Smith commented that he felt it was “different” to the one in Pune.

“It looks like a wicket that will have a bit more pace and carry as the game goes on,” said the Australia captain. “I think this one is more likely going to be one where we are going to have to go really big, but it could be totally different. “

Australia have already set their sights on retaining the Border-Gavaskar trophy, and are only one win away from it, having wrestled it back in 2014-’15 Down Under,

“We know that we have to win one more game to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and things can happen pretty quickly here in India at certain times, particularly at the back end of the game. So we can only be a couple of sessions away from that,” Smith said.

Before the start of the series, the R Ashwin-Smith duel was picked out as one of duels to watch out for in the series. Both players play for the same Indian Premier League team, Rising Pune Supergiant. The world No.1 Test batsman mentioned that the off-spinner didn’t reveal much in the practice sessions last season, something that Australian leggie Adam Zampa also stated a month ago.

“It’s nice to play against him. He’s a quality bowler. When I faced him in the nets [in the past] he bowled leg-spin to me. So didn’t give me many of his tricks there. But he’s pretty cagey,” Smith said.

Australia’s playing eleven

David Warner, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (c), Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade, Mitchell Starc, Steve O’Keefe, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.