'Difficult' to switch off from cricket, says Steven Smith

Star Australia batsman Steve Smith on Sunday said it is "difficult" for him to switch off from cricket and stop shadow batting even for a few hours ahead of the marquee Test series against India.

Smith will be a key member of the Australian team in the much-anticipated four-match series beginning with the pink-ball day/night match in Adelaide from December 17.

"Even when preparing for a Test match it's important to have a little downtime and switch off, even if it's just for an hour over your Sunday morning coffee," Smith tweeted.

"This is not something that comes easy to me as I find it hard to stop visualising the game or shadow batting!"

The 31-year-old right-handed batsman goes into the Test series on the back of some impressive knocks in the limited-overs leg of India's tour.

While he only scored 82 runs in the three-match T20I series, Smith smashed back-to-back centuries off identical 62 balls in two out of the three ODIs. He ended the ODI series with 216 runs at an average of 72.