Australia head coach Justin Langer on Tuesday admitted that both David Warner and Steve Smith would require some time at the middle during the last two Tests against India.

Both the premier batsmen haven’t been part of enough red-ball cricket over the past one year. However, Langer believes they can come good in the last two Tests in Sydney and Brisbane respectively.

“Davey (David Warner) has played a lot of white-ball cricket, a bit like Steve Smith. He hasn’t played any four-day cricket for about 12 months now. That is not even talking about his injury to groin. So that is something we talked about. He is a master of the game, has played a lot of cricket and his experience will help him through that,” said Langer.

“He has had a good rehab. He might get a little restricted on the field. He might get in that area a little bit fatigued because he hasn’t played Test cricket for a while,” he added.

The head coach, who further said that Smith’s practice sessions in Melbourne were also hampered by the rains, felt that both Warner and Smith need to spend a lot of time in the middle to get into groove.

“Stevey (Steve Smith) always gets the volume up in practice. We were hampered a bit by the weather in Melbourne. We weren’t able to get outdoors unfortunately. It just rained a lot, Stevey has been hitting a lot of balls. He did a lot leading up to it. But, even for the greatest of players, there is nothing that replaces the time in the middle… Davey will be the same, he hasn’t spent much time in the middle…,” said Langer.

So the only way to do that is to concentrate and fight hard and spend time in the middle. It is hard to replicate that (spending time in middle),” he added ahead of the third Test that begins Thursday at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Meanwhile, India last week defeated Australia by eight wickets in the Boxing-Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Cricket Ground to level the four-match series 1-1.

Set a target of 70 after Australia were dismissed for 200 in their second innings on Tuesday, the Indians got to the target for the loss of opener Mayank Agarwal (5) and No. 3 Cheteshwar Pujara (3).

Shubman Gill, who hit seven fours in a delightful innings, was unbeaten on 35 and skipper Ajinkya Rahane on 27.

Rahane, who scored a gritty hundred in the first innings to lead India’s comeback at the Down Under, said going in with five bowlers worked well.

With IANS inputs