Alex Carey has hit back at Allan Border's criticism of Steve Smith, dismissing the suggestion Australia's star batter lacked the hard-edge required to succeed in India.

Australia were hammered by an innings and 132 runs within three days in the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar series in Nagpur after collapsing to 91 all out in the second innings - their lowest-ever total in India. 

Smith was one of just four Aussie players to make it past 30 in the first innings and top scored for his side with 25 in the second dig as the visitors lost 10 wickets in a single session.

That, however, did not spare him scathing criticism from Border. The former Australian captain singled out Smith for offering thumbs up when being beaten on the outside edge by Indian bowlers.

'Play with a harder edge,' Border said on Fox Cricket. 

'I mean, we’re giving blokes the thumbs up when they’re beating us outside the off stump 

'What the hell is going on? That is just ridiculous. Don’t go stupid, but Australia play hard nose cricket.' 

Carey, however, dismissed the suggestion the Aussies were too friendly in the opening Test and noted the relationships between the players nowadays was different than during Border's era.

'He [Border] has played many games of cricket over here and he’s a fantastic leader for Australia,' Carey said on Tuesday.

'I guess among the group, guys do it differently. We come up against these players a lot.'

Asked about Smith's on-field behaviour, the Aussie wicket-keeper replied:  'He [Smith] is mates with a lot of them [the Indian players]. And that’s the way he plays. 

'He does it in all situations. He plays around with his hands and does all that stuff. And I think that’s probably what gets him pretty focused.

'They’re obviously strong comments but, as a group, we believe in what we’re doing and come the second Test we’re ready to put a few learnings into place.'

The second Test begins in Delhi on Friday and Australia face an uphill battle to square the series, as India haven't lost a Test at the Arun Jaitley Stadium since 1987.

Australia's only victory at the venue in seven attempts coming all the way back in 1959 under the captaincy of the late Richie Benaud, but their chances could be boosted by the return of Mitchell Starc. 

The 33-year-old dislocated his finger at the MCG in the Boxing Day Test against Australia and had to sit out the final match of the three-Test series against the Proteas and the first Test against India in Nagpur.

And Carey insisted that despite the loss in the opening Test, Australia are confident a first series win in India in 19 years remains possible.

'It is the first Test of four and we‘re still very positive amongst ourselves that we’ll be able to bounce back in Delhi and get this series back on level [terms] and continue to believe in what we’ve done over the past 12 to 18 months,' he said.

'I think we‘re a really strong Test team. We’ve got all bases covered. Unfortunately it didn’t go to plan this first Test, but we’re definitely reinforcing the messages we’ve had leading into the tour.'