Steve Smith will step out of the shadows of Australia’s Twenty20 World Cup ejection to be the pivotal batter across home campaigns that start with an ODI series against England next week.
He will be accompanied by Travis Head, who starred on the limited overs leg of this year’s tour to Pakistan to stake his claim to the spot left vacant by the retirement of Aaron Finch.
Steve Smith and Travis Head during the first Test of the 2019 Ashes. Credit:PA
For Smith, the 50-over matches against England are a chance to better assess how his change in technique – abandoning the trademark sidestep across the crease that he used between 2014 and last summer – will equip him to return to the big scoring days of the 2019 Ashes series.
In particular, Smith wants to rebalance what has so far been a mediocre – for him anyway – record against South Africa, touring for the marquee Test matches in December and January this summer. Smith averages a little more than 41 against the Proteas, with only one century.
“I’ve had stages that I’ve been going a little bit too far across,” Smith has said of his shuffle. “I felt like I’m just getting a bit front-on, just getting into positions I haven’t been happy with.
“If you get too front-on you’re just going to lose power and the ability to hit the ball both sides of the wicket as much. That’s the main reason behind [the change].
“Having guys like [Kagiso] Rabada, and [Marco] Jansen now, who are quite tall and get extra bounce, hopefully being a bit more side-on will enable me to leave the ball better and just get in better positions.”
Head, who has hammered 310 runs at 62.00 and a strike rate of 112.72 in six ODIs this year, has a method of batting ideally suited to hard Australian surfaces, as demonstrated with a couple of spectacular displays during last summer’s Ashes.
“I think Travis Head will get an opportunity with the retirement of Aaron Finch,” head coach Andrew McDonald said. “We’re excited to see what he can do in one-day cricket. We saw how he went in Pakistan against a world-class attack, he was able to take them on, and his one-day domestic record is outstanding.”
The Australians will feature a full fast bowling complement, with new 50-over captain Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood all expected to play. Their involvement in Australian white ball campaigns is expected to be gradually phased out to allow them to ultimately focus on Tests, though not before next year’s ODI World Cup in India.
Josh Hazlewood celebrates the wicket of Finn Allen.Credit:AP
That’s partly because Australia’s early elimination from the T20 World Cup has meant the all-format players now get an additional week at home before the England series runs headlong into the start of the West Indies Tests in Perth and Adelaide.
But it also has some basis in lessons from two seasons of biosecurity bubbles: namely the fact that the Test team and its bowlers do not need formal warm-up matches or Sheffield Shield fixtures in which to prepare themselves.
Last year, ahead of the 4-0 Ashes drubbing of England, the Australians went as far as to decline the offer of a preparatory fixture in Queensland ahead of the opening Test at the Gabba, figuring that centre wicket training sessions could build up volume in terms of bowling and batting while also allowing players and coaches to focus on specifics in real time.
A similar approach was taken out of necessity with a well-directed squad camp in Melbourne, practising on roughed up practice pitches at the MCG, in the days before the groundbreaking Test match tour of Pakistan. It remains to be seen how Australia’s planners choose to fashion the lead-up to next year’s long-awaited Test tour of India in February and March.
