Australian opener Usman Khawaja has shared his thoughts surrounding teammate Steve Smith’s batting position in the Test team. Smith was promoted to the top of the order after David Warner’s retirement, but the decision didn’t work well as Smith has seen mixed results as an opening batter in Tests, and Australia have a huge call to take regarding the same ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy later this year.

He’ll just probably never say it. So I’ll say it for him. Opening is a very important spot … (but) I still think we have the best Test player of my era in the side, in Steve Smith, and his best spot has been number four. I feel like that’s his best spot. I feel like the best balance for our team is (Marnus) Labuschagne three, Smith four,” Khawaja told Fox Cricket.

“For me, the number one consideration is ‘what’s best for the team?’. What order scores us the most runs? And if you look at how many runs we scored with Davey Warner in the team and Smudge batting at four, we scored a lot of runs. With Smudge opening, we’ve still won games, but I don’t think we’ve scored as many runs as we could’ve,” he further added.

However, Steve Smith scored one fifty in eight outings and was an opener in tests as well. He averages 28.50 in the position, compared to the great figure of 61.51 at his original No. 4 spot as well.

“At the end of the day, it’s a decision for the selectors. But if you have me opening, Labuschagne three, Smith four … I feel like Travis Head might be best suited. He’s obviously been very successful opening the batting in one-day cricket and, breaking it down, I’d probably lean towards him. But again, it’s not my decision. But when you’ve got your best batsman, you want to protect him. And in Australia, the hardest time to bat, by far, is that first hour. New Kookaburra ball, new wicket, it’s always the hardest time – I don’t care who you are. And don’t get me wrong, Steve Smith will score runs as an opening batsman. But will he score more batting number four? I reckon he will,” Khawaja concluded.