Up the Order! Steve Smith named Australia’s new Test opener

Steven Smith has been named as Australia’s new Test opener, with Cameron Green slotting in at No.4 for the first Test against West Indies as the team begins life after David Warner.

Barring injury, Australia’s selectors confirmed Green will come into the XI as the only change for Warner for the first Test starting on January 17 while Matt Renshaw has been added to the 13-man squad as the spare batter with no room for Cameron Bancroft or Marcus Harris.

Chairman of selectors George Bailey confirmed Green would slot in at No.4, with Smith, who has publicly stated his desire to move up, set to open the batting for the first time in not only his 114-match Test career but also his 16-year first-class career.

Bailey also noted that Smith’s move to the top of the order was not a short-term decision and that Smith had confirmed he would not request a move back down the order if he had some trouble adjusting to the role early on.

“No. That’s been part of the discussions, I believe, with Steve, that he’s keen for this to be a significant chapter in his career,” Bailey said.

“As far as the panel goes, I think we’ve been pretty consistent in saying that we don’t look too far ahead. We’ve obviously got these two Test matches against the West Indies.

We go to New Zealand, different conditions, different challenge. We’ll have more information then. We’ve clearly got a big gap between Test cricket and then India over the summer. But for all intents and purposes, this is where Steve wants to stay.”

Renshaw has been added as the spare batter in case of an injury or concussion. Scott Boland remains in the squad as the spare fast bowler but is unlikely to play given the fitness of Australia’s main three fast bowlers.

Bailey confirmed that his panel had chosen the “best six batters” in Australia rather than picking an experienced opener, something the panel had long been planning to do, with Renshaw confirmed as the seventh best in the selectors’ eyes ahead of Bancroft and Harris.

“I think ultimately you can mount statistically some strong cases for a number of players,” Bailey said. “As it currently stands, the panel sees Matt Renshaw is our next best batter.

“We’ve gone back 18 months or so and I think if you take into account all first-class cricket I think across that time, those guys have played Shield cricket, some county cricket, some Australia A cricket, and PM’s XI games.

Matthew’s played a couple of Tests in Australia and in India across that period and his numbers stack up as well as anyone’s across that time.”

Bailey was also categoric in denying that Bancroft’s non-selection, despite being the leading run-scorer in Shield cricket over the last two years, had been for anything other than cricketing reasons, in reference to his infamous interview in England in 2021 following the Sandpaper incident in 2018.

“I’m glad you asked that because I wanted to touch on it. It’s categorically no,” Bailey said. “And I’ve shared this with Cameron on a number of occasions.

That has never at any stage been discussed from the panel’s perspective. It’s purely a cricketing decision. There is not a member of the team that would have an issue with Cam playing. We certainly don’t have an issue with it.

“I think a lot of people tend to forget the fact that Cam’s actually played Test cricket since returning from the ban. It was a long time ago.

We’ve all moved well past that. I’d be disappointed if people were looking to that as a reason. All I can do is reiterate to you and to Cam that’s not the case. Never has been and never will be.” (ESPNcricinfo) 

Australia squad for first Test vs West Indies

Pat Cummins (capt), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Renshaw, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc