Australia are set to name a new opening batter for the five-Test series against India and move Steve Smith down the order to replace injured allrounder Cameron Green.
Cricket Australia (CA) confirmed on Monday that Green would undergo surgery on a stress fracture in his back and miss six months of cricket rather than target a quicker return but risk re-injury.
That seemingly left selectors with two options for the home series against India and subsequent tour of Sri Lanka: either name a new allrounder or push Smith down the order to replace Green.
On Monday, CA chief selector George Bailey revealed Smith had already approached captain Pat Cummins and coach Andrew McDonald to flag his hopes of returning to the middle order.
Smith began opening the batting alongside Usman Khawaja following David Warner’s retirement midway through last summer, but averaged only 28.50 across his four Tests at the top.
Selectors are now poised to abandon the experiment and name Smith at No.4: Green’s old spot and the position where the 35-year-old has batted in 67 of his 109 Tests.
“Pat and Andrew have confirmed that he’ll be dropping back down the order for the summer,” Bailey said.
“Clearly we’ve got a No.4 spot to fill and an opening spot to fill.”
Marcus Harris and Cameron Bancroft appear the two leading candidates for that opening spot as Australia fight to avoid a third consecutive home series loss to India.
Both were named in the Australia A squad on Monday alongside teenaged NSW opener Sam Konstas, who blasted two centuries in only his fifth first-class match last week.
But the preference appears to be for either Bancroft or Harris: both former Test players and proven performers at Sheffield Shield level in recent years.
“(Konstas) is in the mix, as are plenty of others. I certainly don’t want to single him out,” Bailey said.
“The consistency of Cam Bancroft over a number of years, the consistency of Marcus Harris over a number of years, they’ve both had a look at Test cricket as well.
“I don’t think there’s any need at this stage to put any undue pressure or expectation on Sam.”
Bailey expected Mitch Marsh would be ready to help ease pressure on the big three quicks this summer after the decision to replace Green with a specialist opener seemingly left Australia short a pace option.
Marsh’s medium pace has been used sparingly since the allrounder returned to the Test set-up last year, the burly West Australian bowling only 38 overs across his last seven Tests.
“You don’t know how a Test is going to play out in terms of the workload for the quicks or how much of an impact Nathan Lyon is going to have across the summer,” Bailey said.
“We’ll continue preparing for Mitch Marsh to be able to bowl some overs as well, that’s been part of his management for the last couple of months.”
After being diagnosed with his stress fracture during the white-ball tour of the UK, Green spent more than a week holding meetings on return to Australia to determine whether to undergo surgery.
A CA statement revealed a “unique defect” in an area adjacent to the lumbar spine fracture had been contributing to the latest in a string of back injuries for 25-year-old Green.
“The decision to proceed to surgery is with Cameron’s long-term future as an all-rounder in mind,” CA’s statement read.
In recent years, Jason Behrendorff and James Pattinson have been among other Australian representative fast-bowlers to bounce back from surgery on similarly serious lower back injuries.
