Cricket Australia chief selector George Bailey has confirmed that Steve Smith won't open the batting in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy after the star batter desired to move back down the order. The former though didn't reveal if Smith would bat at No. 4, his much-coveted position in the batting order, although he will likely return there.
Speaking to the media on Monday afternoon, Bailey confirmed that Smith had “expressed a desire” to move back down the order for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, opening the door for a specialist opener to join the Test starting XI.
Last summer, Smith had moved up the order to open with Usman Khawaja after David Warner's retirement and scored 171 runs in four Tests at an average of 28.5.
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“Pat (Cummins), Andrew (McDonald) and Steve Smith have been having ongoing conversations, separate to the untimely injury to Cameron anyway," Bailey said while speaking to the media.
“Steve had expressed a desire to move back down from that opening position, and Pat and Andrew have confirmed that he will be dropping back down the order for the summer," Bailey added.
The former Australia skipper though refused to confirm if Smith would bat at No. 4, where he has batted on a whopping 111 occasions.
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“We’ve got another four weeks until that Test squad’s announced and what exact order and who is in it and how they line up will be determined," Bailey said.
“As far as the (batting) order goes, you’ll have to direct that towards Pat and Andrew at the appropriate time. The decision for Steve to go to the top of the order (last summer) was firmly to find a way to get Cam Green back into the line-up and get what we considered our best six batters into the same line-up," Bailey added.
Australia play the first Test against India from November 22 in Perth.