Former Australia opener Matthew Hayden said that Steve Smith is better suited to play in the middle-order of the Test team. The veteran was promoted up the order, along with Usman Khawaja, following David Warner’s retirement midway through the last home season as well. Smith has not had a great season as an opener, with his brilliant fifty in the fourth innings against the West Indies at The Gabba being the
standout. And, Matthew Hayden shared that displacing Steve Smith from his No.4 position does not work well.

“The rationale that [national selector] George Bailey gave was correct in so far as that he was choosing his best top six batsmen. Now, you can’t argue with Steven Smith, he is averaging 65 [57] in Test-match cricket… 32 Test-match hundreds,” Hayden said on the sidelines of the CEAT cricket rating awards in Mumbai.” But the role of an opening batsman compared to a middle-order batsman is very different. And it didn’t take long to discover that when you get into challenging conditions, like they faced in the first series outside of Australia, which was in New Zealand, that opening the batting is very difficult.”

“I, personally, as I said at the time, was on record saying that I didn’t like changing. I think it’s crazy to think that you have the world’s best-in-class batter in a certain position. And then you change to a completely different position. For a few reasons, I think that’s crazy. Firstly, why? Such a gun in that position, such a coveted player,” Hayden again shared.

However, there is doubt regarding Steve Smith’s batting position before the all-important Border-Gavaskar series. The Aussies will need reinforcements in the middle-order against a strong Indian unit who are looking to claim their third consecutive series win as well.

“And then it also is not a great nod to the first-class set-up, which is very much in the Australian culture, been driving great results towards key roles, be that any one of the roles – wicketkeeping, batting, spinners, fast bowlers, opening batters. So the [batting positions of] one, two and three is a category which needs to be protected in my opinion. It sets up play,” Matthew Hayden concluded.