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Opinion
In a side boasting hard-hitting talent from top to lower order, Steve Smith appears to be an anomaly in Australia’s T20I batting order and one which the selectors seem to be seriously considering as surplus to requirements.
To some he appears as a relic of a time when T20 was in its infancy.
Striking at mid-120s with an average barely over 25 he stands out as a potential weak link, surrounded by batsmen averaging 10 more runs per innings and striking at 15-25 more runs per 100 balls. However, the bare statistics do not tell the full story, as they rarely do.
The recent experiment pushing Aaron Finch down the order, ostensibly to give an opportunity to Cameron Green in the format at the top of the order, shows the dilemma faced by the Australian selectors.
There is no steady hand in the middle order. Australia have a plethora of batsmen both in and out of the current squad ready made to go hard from the outset and capitalise on a good start from a solid top three.
But what happens when the good start is not forthcoming? As we saw in Wednesday’s defeat at the hands of England we have a succession of batsmen who can make 40-odd off 20-odd but are susceptible to high-quality bowling and making loose decisions.
This continued down the order to the point that Australia ran out of specialist batsmen during the chase, leaving Matthew Wade to try and finish with Pat Cummins and falling short. If Australia’s best bowling line up is selected as it was Wednesday, the tail is long with Cummins and Mitchell Starc at 8 and 9 and only Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood to follow.
Australia will face better attacks and more challenging conditions in the upcoming World Cup. Having Smith puttering along at just over a run a ball may just have made the difference on Wednesday and will undoubtedly assist in similar scenarios throughout the tournament.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Why? Having Smith to work around gives his hard hitting teammates a reliable anchor, meaning they can go hard and not concern themselves overly with the prospect of their own dismissal leading to collapse. It frees up players like Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Tim David to maximise their aggressive intent and lessens the blow when the inevitable miscue to the outfield or missed straight ball comes along.
Smith is also an excellent foil for such batsmen, capable of rotating the strike and quick between the wickets, turning ones into twos and twos to threes.
While he may not be the man to take a potential score of 180 to 200-plus, he will undoubtedly take the occasional faltering innings through to a defendable score. Australia are as likely to face such scenarios as they are to be in need of pushing their total beyond 10 per over.
Without him in the team Australia risk becoming one dimensional and will lack resilience when facing challenging scenarios. Ironically, given the build-up to the tournament and the speculation about the composition of the squad, as a batsman alone Green would probably be the ideal replacement were Smith to be left out of a given line-up.
Despite his underwhelming overall statistics Smith is also capable of upping the ante when required and has played remarkable individual innings in T20 cricket in the past, particularly in the IPL.
He is also a modern great of the game with an aura possessed by only a very select few of his contemporaries – teams will know Australia is not beaten while Smith is at the crease. Smith is a big-game player with an eye for crucial moments, an excellent fielder and the team stands taller when he’s there.
Perhaps this line of thinking is outdated and given the flat pitches that will be prepared this tournament a line-up full of sloggers is the way to go. However, I’m sure Australia’s opponents will be breathing easier with him out of the side than in.
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