New Delhi: Ace batter Steven Smith will be seen returning to his preferred spot i.e. no. 4 batting position in the upcoming Test series against India, quitting his brief stint of being the opener for the Kangaroos after David Warner hung his boots. He said that a part of his reason for this was due to the disliking his top-order teammates had for his shift to opener earlier this year.
Now that it has been confirmed that Smith won’t open the batting against India, he clarified that he didn’t particularly “request” to move back to the no. 4 position, though admitting that it is his “ideal position” to bat. Since taking the role after Warner’s retirement, Smith opened for Australia in four Tests. His performance at the top although didn’t match the heroics he committed at no. 4, his unbeaten 91 almost took Australia home against the West Indies at the Gabba.
Last week, Australia’s chair of selectors George Bailey mentioned that Smith had “expressed a desire” to return to the no. 4 role and how it was ultimately going to be the case if Cameron Green hadn’t got injured and ruled out of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. On the sidelines of NSW’s Sheffield Shield match against Victoria, Smith explained that Test skipper Pat Cummins and coach Andrew McDonald had asked him about his preferred batting position to which he replied with no. 4.
“I got asked (by Pat Cummins and Andrew McDonald) where my preference would be, and I said four. I saw a few things last week saying that I’ve requested to bat at four. That wasn’t the case. I said I’m happy to bat wherever you’d like me to bat, but yeah, four would be my ideal position. I also said I’m happy batting wherever, I’m not really too fussed,” Smith clarified.
Who were the teammates ‘hating’ Smith?
Smith had requested the management to let him pursue the role of an opener earlier this year. The 35-year-old revealed that teammates Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja weren’t “okay” with his decision to move up the order.
“Obviously, there’s a spot there now with Greeny (Cameron Green) out. Conversations we had after the New Zealand series, particularly with Marnus and Uzzie (Khawaja), they hated me up top, to be honest. They wanted me batting behind them. So that was a big part of it. And then obviously, I’ve got a decent record at four.
“It was good fun trying something new, batting up top. I still feel like I could do a job there for sure. It was a pretty small sample size. But I’ve done pretty well at four for a number of years now, and I feel like it’s probably where I can have my best input for this team at the moment,” Smith concluded.
