Australia, chief selector, George Bailey, confirmed a week ago that Steve Smith will move back to his original No. 4 position, after trying his luck at the opening spot following David Warner’s retirement. As per Bailey, the Australian Test captain Pat Cummins, coach Andrew McDonald, and Smith himself made the decision.
The No. 4 position was left vacant by Cameron Green who will miss at least six months of cricket due to a lower spine surgery. Smith said that, although he did not explicitly request a move back to his original No. 4 position, it is his preferred spot as can be confirmed by his insane batting average here.
“I got asked where I’d prefer to bat, and I said four. I didn’t ask [to move] though,” Steve Smith made it clear after George Bailey said that the right-handed batter “had expressed a desire to move back down from that opening position”.
“I also said I’m happy batting wherever. I’m not really too fussed. I got asked 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.”
Despite being unable to replicate the magic up top, that he used to weave at the fourth position, the 35-year-old was happy and optimistic, up until recently, to continue at the new position. When asked what led him to abandon the opening spot now, Smith said,
“Obviously there’s a spot there now with Greeny [Cameron Green] out. And I think just conversations we had after New Zealand with particularly Marnus [Labuschagne] and Uzzie [Usman Khawaja], they hated me up top, to be honest. They wanted me behind them.”
“They just like the…they call it security behind them, in a way. They were pretty strong on me not batting there. So that was a big part of it. And then obviously, I’ve got a decent record at four.”
The Sydney-born was able to score only 171 runs across eight innings where he opened, averaging something north of 28. But Smith believes he was just getting started and can still do the opening job pretty well if he gets enough time.
“It was good fun having a crack at 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. I feel like it’s probably where I can have my best input for this team at the moment.”
After Warner’s retirement, Smith requested rather zealously to be moved to the top of the batting order. This was seen as a step to rejuvenate a career, which by no means was dead, but had lost a little of its magnificence as the talks about Smith’s retirement were rife. Nevertheless, with the right-handed batter back to No. 4 now, Australia seek a solution to a new challenge; who will open with Usman Khawaja for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
