Steve Smith The Jumped Up Pantry Boy

Pete Lalor on Smith

Artwork by Fisher Classics

It will be September soon and Australian cricket still hasn’t made up it’s mind about Steve Smith as opener. Or, more to the point, they know they don’t like it, but they don’t have a better idea.

Last year Gideon and I put together the Top 10 Smiths songs about Steve Smith and while it seemed as if every tune they recorded bore some relevance, This Charming Man, with its line about “a jumped up pantry boy who never knew his place” seems kinda apt at this time.

This charming Smith knows his place. Once it was batting at the top of the order, initially at first drop and then sliding in behind Marnus Labuschagne at No.4 when the Queenslander worked his way into the set up.

The move to replace Warner needs be seen in that light. Smith knows what he is doing and has shown a degree of selflessness that hasn’t been adequately acknowledged. You always got the sense he preferred batting first drop, but accepted the move down a place because it was best for the team.  There’s a similar motivation at play with him strapping on the helmet and facing the new ball.

Smith says he hasn’t considered the long term consequences, but he has risked a lot. If this doesn’t work out where does it leave him?

The back story on the move is an interesting one and to some degree owes its antecedents to remarks made by Shane Watson during a live “podcast” we did with the all rounder at Willie the Boatman ahead of last summer.

“I like, knowing the person, the idea of Steve Smith opening,” Watson said.

“The reason why is that No. 3 is the perfect position for him. When he’s the man, he feels like he is the one who has to score the bulk of runs for his team, and when he was in his most prolific period, which was a long period of time, most of it was batting at No. 3.

“When he was at No. 3 … he was scoring runs for fun, but when he comes in at No. 4, often the work’s been done, and finding motivation is more challenging for him.

“Steve Smith opening the batting, he has got the technique, is the challenge he needs.

“My concern is that if Steve Smith isn’t given a challenge, he might shut things down earlier than he needs.”

It was something nobody had considered, so I casually mentioned the comments on SEN and then floated the balloon in The Australian.

It was, as they say, so mad it just might work.

It was also so mad that nobody really thought it worth engaging with. The idea could have easily have died on the vine and looked set to, but the following morning I was waiting to do something on the ground before play when Smith’s manager, who I had mentioned the concept to the day before and who’d said he didn’t hate it, came around to say that Smith was open to the challenge.

That was something of a game changer and when Smith himself confirmed it in a quick grab on the ABC radio after play the story was away.

The experts all thought it was among the worst ideas they had ever heard. Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Justin Langer and the like all slammed it. And you couldn’t blame them for that. In fact, it still may turn out to be the worst idea since aluminium bats.

During a debate on commentary James Bradshaw asked “why are we even having this conversation”? And it was a good question. We were not having the debate because Steve Smith needed a change, but because Cameron Green was not in the Test XI.

Langer gave his 10 cents worth on the Cricket Et Al podcast last week (great listen by the way, JL’s a natural story teller and probably the most enthusiastic person in the game).

“He’s one of the greatest player we’ve had,” he said. “Great players adapt, they can bat anywhere in the order. For the Australian cricket team, I think he’s best suited to bat number four.

“I think it’s a really specialised position. It’s not that he can’t do it (open). I’d love to see him bat at No.4, but then they have to work out who doesn’t play.

“My observation was that it was more about trying to get Cameron Green in and MItch Marsh had taken that all rounder role, they wanted to get the best young player in the XI.”

Last week Usman Khawaja had said he thought Australia, and I’m paraphrasing here, throwing pearls before swine.

“When you put him up to open, I feel like you’re kind of giving them a chance to get at him early,” he said.

The opener as crash test dummy is an interesting but not novel concept. Khawaja and his mate Warner were the penguins pushed off the ice to see if there were sharks about. And if there were sharks about there mates hoped that their blood was enough to sate the predators.

Matthew Hayden, another Queenslander and another who opened, had been loud in his criticism of the idea at the time, said again recently he still thought  “crazy”.

Look, not even Smith will tell you it is a great idea, but it was the best he could come up with at the time and has anybody got a better one?

If you bring in a specialist opener and drop Green is the Australian side better or worse off?

Green, who scored a career high 174no against New Zealand in Wellington earlier this year, has taken 35 Test wickets at 35. He is one of the more valuable cricketers in the stable.

The all rounder is coming into his own. To this point in his career he has not bowled a lot, but you can be certain he is going to be called on a lot more in a five match series against India this summer.

Pat Cummins, who knows the toll the Border Gavaskar will take on the three front line seamers, signalled his intent to throw Green and Marsh the ball a bit more regularly.

“It's been huge [having the allrounders]," Cummins said. "In some ways we haven't had to use them as much as we thought we would. Which is a great thing. The last couple of summers have been pretty light [with] quick Test matches.

"I suspect this summer might be a bit different at time. We'll be drawing on Cam Green and Mitch Marsh a bit more. Even someone like Cam basically started in Shield cricket as a bowler but hasn't had to bowl heaps in Test matches. Now he is a few years older, I think we will be leaning on him a bit more.

“We're really lucky that Nathan Lyon bowls plenty of overs, so you don't necessarily have to have an allrounder, but it makes a big difference to have that fifth bowling option. And with someone like Cam and Mitch we have six bowling options. It's a really nice thing to have. Top six should always make the team on their batting."

And the Pantry Boy?

His motivation deserves more recognition than it gets.

If you have a better XI let us know ….