After Ex-Captain's Jasprit Bumrah Warning To Australia, Steve Smith Confirmed To Bat In Middle-Order In BGT 2024-25

Steve Smith will bat in the middle-order in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India.

Steve Smith will not be opening for Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. The same has been confirmed by national selector George Bailey who said that Smith will be back in the middle order, ending his short stint as a Test opener. Notably, Smith had been promoted as an opener after David Warner's retirement from the longest format of the game.

In only his second Test a Test opener, Smith carried his bat as he scored an unbeaten 91 as Australia lost to West Indies in Brisbane. However, Smith has little to show against his name in the New Zealand series where he could only muster 51 runs in four innings.

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With Cameron Green doing well at the Smith's preferred Number 4 and the latter moving up the order, things had been working fine for the Aussies but for Smith's returns with the bat and Green's injury which has ruled him out of the five Tests against India.

"Pat, Andrew and Steve Smith had been having ongoing convers, separate to the untimely injury to Cameron (Green)," Bailey told reporters.

"Steve had expressed a desire to move back down from that opening position, and Pat and Andrew have confirmed that he will be dropping back down the order for the summer."

When Ian Chappell Issued Jasprit Bumrah Warning To Australia

While the selectors will now keep a close eye on the Australia A series to pick up a suitable candidate for an opener for the India series, Smith's decision to step to the middle-order comes after Ian Chappell had issued Jasprit Bumrah warning to Australia who even seemed to be mulling Travis Head as an opener.

"Head opening in Test cricket is based on his unbridled success facing the new ball in both 50-over and T20 cricket. There's no doubt Head, with his ultra-aggressive style, is the ideal player to open in the two short forms of the game. However, Test cricket is an entirely different proposition," Chappell wrote in his column on ESPNCricinfo.

"Any move to open with Head that is designed to unsettle Jasprit Bumrah is asking a lot of the batter. Bumrah, and to a lesser extent Mohammad Siraj, are unlikely to be battered into altering their attacking mentality," said Chappell.