{"id":80043,"date":"2024-01-13T02:38:08","date_gmt":"2024-01-13T02:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mlbhi.aweu.info\/?p=80043"},"modified":"2024-01-13T02:38:50","modified_gmt":"2024-01-13T02:38:50","slug":"i-dont-like-waiting-to-bat-smith-keen-to-tackle-new-challenge-head-on-test-daily-bbb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/i-dont-like-waiting-to-bat-smith-keen-to-tackle-new-challenge-head-on-test-daily-bbb\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I don\u2019t like waiting to bat\u2019: Smith keen to tackle new challenge head on \u2014 Test Daily"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Australian Test opener Steve Smith has expressed his excitement over moving up the order ahead of Wednesday\u2019s first Test against the West Indies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Smith will replace the retired David Warner at the top for the Aussies.<\/p>\n

Smith opened the batting for the Sydney Sixers in their BBL win against the Sydney Thunder, but failed to fire, dismissed for a golden duck.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Fox Cricket before the game, Smith said the move to parachute up the order has been in the pipeline for some time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, there\u2019s been conversations happening for a little while,\u201d Smith said on Fox Cricket.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, knowing that Davey was gonna finish up in Sydney and I know they were keen to get Cameron Green back into the fold as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it was a conversation saying, \u2018I\u2019m keen to go up to the top. If you were thinking about Greeny up the top, he hasn\u2019t done it at all\u2019. (Green) bats four in Shield cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the start of the Pakistan series, Cam Bancroft, Marcus Harris and Matt Renshaw were the three names in contention for Warner\u2019s spot.<\/p>\n

However in the last couple of weeks, Smith\u2019s name started to be tossed up as a potential option.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, George Bailey and the Australian selectors decided to give Smith a chance with Usman Khawaja at the top with Green back into the side at number four in the order.<\/p>\n

\n

Kayo Bites BBL: Sixers v Thunder | 05:06<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In somewhat of a surprise, Bancroft and Harris were omitted completely from the squad for the West Indies series while Renshaw was picked as a reserve option.<\/p>\n

Smith, who averaged just over 38 in five innings against Pakistan, says the move allows the Aussies to play their \u201cbest six batters\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince Marnus has been back playing at No.3, I\u2019ve been waiting to bat for quite a long period of time,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like waiting to bat, so I thought why don\u2019t I put my hand up and have a crack up top? That way, you can get Cameron Green in and you\u2019re playing your best six batters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am (excited). I like facing the newer ball. If you look back to the 2019 Ashes, I was in pretty early there most of the time where I was facing the new ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI batted No.3 from a number of years as well and was in early and did pretty well against the new ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s nothing new or foreign to me. I enjoy getting in there and getting amongst it and I\u2019m looking forward to that challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Australian Test opener Steve Smith has expressed his excitement over moving up the order ahead of Wednesday\u2019s first Test against the West Indies. Smith will replace… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}