Smith named as Australia Test opener
Steve Smith will take over from David Warner and open the batting alongside Usman Khawaja for Australia’s Test cricket team, selector George Bailey said yesterday ahead of a two-match series against West Indies later this month.
Australian media reported this week that Smith and allrounder Cameron Green were among the front-runners for the vacant opener spot after Warner’s retirement.
“There were plenty within the team who were pretty keen to go on record and say that they weren’t keen to do it,” Bailey told reporters.
“So it was refreshing that Steve had come forward and said he wanted it, and it was something that we’d been chatting about in the background as a selection panel with the coaches as well.
“It’s selfless that someone who has had so much success in one position, or a couple of positions in the middle-order, is open and willing and hungry to have a crack at something new and something different.”
Smith, 34, moves up the order from number four in the batting line-up.
Cricket Australia said Green would play in the first Test against West Indies. Bailey said he would bat at number four.
“The way the rest of that batting order is functioning left us feeling we have someone who we think is pretty talented who potentially was going to find it hard to get any Test cricket in the next 12 months or so,” he said.
Matt Renshaw, who Warner has tipped as a potential successor, has also been called up to the squad, while the Sheffield Shield’s leading runscorer Cameron Bancroft misses out.
Besides Renshaw’s inclusion in place of Warner, there are no changes to the squad which beat Pakistan by eight wickets in the third and final Test to sweep the series 3-0 last week.
The West Indies series starts at Adelaide Oval on January 17 before moving to the Gabba in Brisbane from January 25.
Cricket Australia also named the squad for a threematch one-day international series.
Smith will captain the side in the absence of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Marsh, who was skipper for a series against SA in September.
Western Australia bowler Lance Morris received his first call-up in the 50-overs format, while Jhye Richardson, who last played an ODI against Sri Lanka in 2022, returns.
Marcus Stoinis, part of Australia’s World Cup-winning squad in India, misses out.