Even as the debate over Steve Smith’s opening role in Test matches gathers momentum in the lead-up to the gruelling five-Test series against India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy later this year, the former Australia skipper downplays it as “just a position” and hopes the team management will take a call after the brief limited overs tour to England next month.
Since David Warner’s retirement from international cricket in January, Smith has been promoted to open the batting, a move that has facilitated the entry of Cameron Green at the No.4 spot, and if Australia retain the same batting order, Smith will have to cope the challenges thrown by Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj.
In his new role, the 35-year-old, approaching the 10,000 Test runs milestone, has found mixed results across four Tests with 171 runs at 28.50 although that included a superb unbeaten 91 against the West Indies. With Smith set to feature in Sheffield Shield before the India series, the team management could get a clearer picture.
“There’s conversations happening in the background. You see some comments that guys like Usman (Khawaja) has said he likes me down at No. 4, think Marnus is of a similar thought pattern. We’ll wait and see. I’m happy to bat anywhere,” Smith said.
“For me, it’s just a position. Batting at four, I could be in after the first two balls. I’ve been in early on many occasions and faced the new ball. For me, it’s kind of just a number. I batted at three for a long period of time as well and we lost wickets inside the first over and I’ll come out and score runs. The only real thing I had to get used to was how quick a turnaround it is when you come off the field and you only have ten minutes, particularly with the amount of mucking around I have in the changing rooms,” he added.
More than the batting position, the prolific right-hander is excited at the prospect of playing the series, which could potentially have a say in deciding the two finalists for the World Test Championships final next year. India finished runners-up to Australia in the 2023 WTC final.
India currently lead the WTC table, having accumulated 68.52 percent of the total points from nine Tests. Before the five Tests against Australia, Rohit Sharma’s side will play two Tests against Bangladesh and three against New Zealand in the current cycle. For India to cement their chances for the WTC final, they will need another 63 points from the maximum 120 points on offer from the remaining 10 Tests. A win fetches 12 points and a draw four.
Meanwhile, Australia are one of only two teams to have already played four out of six series in this cycle; West Indies are the other. They are sitting pretty on 62.5 per cent, but their final ranking will largely depend on how they fare at home against India. The Pat Cummins-led defending champions need 47 more points from the remaining seven Tests (five against India, 2 against Sri Lanka) to find themselves playing a second successive WTC final. They can get there with four wins, or three wins and three draws.
Also it will be the first time since 1991-92 that the two teams will take on each other across five Tests, although there has been no shortage of thrill in the four-match contests in recent times. For the Australians, there will be no dearth of motivation to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in 10 years, having not beaten India since the 2014-15 series on home soil.
“You can’t really hide in a five-Test series like you probably can in a two-match series for instance. If someone gets the wood on you, it can be hard coming back from that. It’s going to be a wonderful series,” Smith said.
“We are probably the two best teams at the moment in Test cricket. We played the World Test Championship final last year and beat them there. They’ve been great out here the last couple of times, they’ve played really good cricket, hopefully we can turn the tables. It’s been ten years since we last won the Border-Gavaskar trophy so need to do that this year,” he added.
Hopeful of representing Australia in LA2028 despite T20I snub
Smith, who has been left out of the three T20Is against England, will join the team for the one-day leg of the white-ball series against the traditional rivals. Despite the snub, the veteran batter is eyeing a longer haul in the shortest format with a hope to represent Australia at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles with T20 likely to be the format for the Summer Games.
But for that Smith, who was dropped from the 2024 T20 World Cup in the Americas, has to make his way back into Australia’s T20I scheme of things. His hopes received a much-needed push when he signed a new three-year deal with Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League (BBL), which means he will be playing professional cricket until at least 2026-27.
“The conversations I’ve had so far is that we’ll go to England… I’m there for the one-dayers,” he said.
“I could still be playing T20 cricket in four years, so you never know. It’s a format I can see myself playing probably for a lot longer than some of the others, especially with the franchise stuff around the world. I’ve signed on here for three years so it’s only another year after that. It would be cool to be part of an Olympics,” he added.
While it remains to be seen whether he can return to Australia’s T20I set-up for the LA2028 Games, Smith is in no mood of bidding goodbye to the other two formats at the moment.
“I don’t have any plans. I’m just enjoying playing at the moment, I’m pretty relaxed and looking forward to this summer,” he said.