Why Labuschagne prefers Smith at four and his thoughts on the vacant opening position

AUSTRALIA’S Marnus Labuschagne does prefer having Steve Smith bat behind him at number four in the Test order.

After opening the batting in his last eight innings, Smith is returning to the spot where he’s averaged 61.50 from 111 knocks at Test level, and he said during NSW’s last Shield match against Victoria that part of the reason why he’s doing that is for his teammates Usman Khawaja and Labuschagne who would rather he bat there for ‘security’.

While Labuschagne did admit that he does think that Smith is better suited at four for that reason, he thinks that he and Khawaja’s preference had little say in the decision from Australian selectors to move the 35-year-old back to his preferred spot ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India.

With Smith returning to his middle-order spot, Labuschagne was also asked about who will come into the team at the top of the order, but that’s a question he doesn’t think is answerable just yet.

“Firstly, I like that you think I’ve got that much say, that’s certainly not the case,” Labuschagne told SENQ Breakfast.

“But for me, having Steve Smith who is probably our best number four of all time, creates a lot of security for the team. I think that’s where he’s best suited.

“That obviously leads us on to who’s going to open the batting, and at the moment I honestly don’t know what way they’re going to go.

“A few rounds in certainly the big performers so far have been Alex Carey, Josh Inglis and probably Nathan McSweeney and Sam Konstas – they’ve probably been the big performers in the first four innings of Shield cricket.

“But there’s two Australia A games, another Shield game, so there’s about six to eight innings to go before selection.

“So we’ll have to wait and see.”

While the likes of Konstas and McSweeney may have the inside running due to their hot starts to the season, Labuschagne doesn’t think the cricket world should rule out former Test batters Matt Renshaw, Marcus Harris and Cameron Bancroft, who have all pressed their cases for selection over a long period of time.

“There’s also heaps of guys that I didn’t mention there that are still in the running,” Labuschagne said.

“With six or eight innings to go, that’s a lot of time to make a push.

“The likes of Matt Renshaw, Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft, they’re all seasoned professionals, they’ve done this for years and have been consistent for years.

“Certainly you wouldn’t want to be judging them off one or two innings because you’ve got a lot of sample size there.”

The first Test between Australia and India begins at Perth’s Optus Stadium on November 22.