He feels Steven Smith should face as many deliveries as possible.
During the ABC Summer Grandstand show on February 15, legendary wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist dropped a bold suggestion following Australia’s ODI series loss to Sri Lanka. He feels the captain Steven Smith should start the innings along with Travis Head. It will also add to the left-right combination at the top.
Gilchrist said, “It’s a challenging one at the moment, but Steve Smith should open. I didn’t see where he was slotted in the game against Sri Lanka. Obviously, Travis is going to be there – he’s fresh and fit. I also like Matt Short being there – he can form a nice left hand-right hand combination – that would be the preferred way for me to go.”
The Fab Five player returned with scores of 12 and 29 while batting at No.4 in the recent tour. In 151 ODI appearances, Steven has made 5,703 runs out of which more than 4K runs came at the No.3 position.
Gilchrist reminded the audience about Steven’s potential as an opener and that he should face as many deliveries as possible.
“But I do think Steve Smith can open – we have seen him do that in 20-over cricket really well. Maybe he’s too valuable in the middle-order, but I can’t see a reason why you wouldn’t want him facing as many balls as possible in a 50 over game. It could be a very viable option to get him up there,” continued Gilly.
ALSO READ:
The ODI World Cup holders are in a pickle due to multiple players being unavailable on account of injuries or personal reasons. Australia will head for the ICC mega event without first-choice pacers like Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Pat Cummins. Cameron Green and Mitchell Marsh are also sitting out. To add to their woes, Marcus Stoinis announced his sudden retirement from the 50-over format.
Gilly is concerned that the team is underprepared for a contest in Pakistan.
He quoted, “I guess there’s been limited preparation with regards to this format. The Australian team were outstanding in the huge summer – both men’s and women’s. But a lot of nations will focus on 50-over cricket when it’s a World Cup year certainly in terms of volume of the games and who’s actually playing it.”
However, the wicketkeeper batter’s solution is to give the green light to the youngsters.
“The next ODI World Cup is in 2027 I suppose, so this is an opportunity to experiment and give younger players a go. That might bring with it some mixed results – once you get into a tournament, it’s just tournament play and find a way to go through the next round. That’s what Australia do well – they scrape well, but it’s going to be challenging in those conditions over there. They don’t have the full strength of players who they would like to take typically, so this might be a tough tournament for them,” he concluded.
Australia will face England in Lahore on February 22. Their next fixtures are against South Africa and Afghanistan on February 25 and February 28 respectively.
For more updates, follow CricXtasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, and YouTube.
