Melbourne, October 21
Ahead of the Border Gavaskar Trophy against India, Australia's seasoned batter Steven Smith revealed that Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne "hated" him opening bat in the Test format because his presence in the middle order offered "security" to the team.
Smith's short-lived stint as Warner's replacement ended after Australia's National Selector, George Bailey, confirmed that Smith was moved to the number four spot in the middle order.
Bailey claimed that Smith had expressed his "desire" to be moved back to the number four spot and revealed that the decision was made by skipper Pat Cummins and head coach Andrew McDonald.
Smith revealed that McDonald asked him about his preferred batting position. He also spilt beans about Khawaja and Labuschagne, expressing their discontent about him opening bat for Australia.
"I got asked where I'd prefer to bat, and I said four. I didn't ask [to move] though. 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," Smith said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
"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 and Uzi, 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," he added.
Smith was promoted to the top of the order after David Warner had his last dance in Test cricket. However, the 35-year-old's time turned out to be a forgettable run. He could only garner 171 runs at 28.50, which raised concerns over him playing the role of an opener.
"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," he remarked.
The 35-year-old is not too "fussed" about moving back to the spot where he yielded success and remarked, "Honestly, I'm not that fussed. I said it when I took that job. I'm not really fussed about where I bat. The conversations I had with the other guys, they didn't like it at all. They wanted some security, I suppose, behind them, where I've done really well for a number of years, and I can understand that as well. So it is what it is, and I'm not going to be opening this summer. That's it."