TIM Paine has hit back at Michael Clarke\u2019s rant surrounding the Australian selectors and Steve Smith, going in to defend George Bailey and his panel.<\/p>\n
Smith recently earned selection for Australia\u2019s squad to play South Africa in three T20Is in a nod towards the World Cup later this year.<\/p>\n
Bailey told reporters that Smith had been earmarked to open the batting.<\/p>\n
Smith, 34, only played one game of last year\u2019s T20 World Cup and was in dreadful form in the shortest format prior.<\/p>\n
It led former Australia captain Clarke to tee off at selectors, describing Smith\u2019s recall as an \u201cembarrassing\u201d backflip and stating there was \u201cno accountability\u201d among the selection panel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what they\u2019re thinking with Smithy in the T20s,\u201d Clarke said on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s playing any other T20 cricket around the world. He\u2019s not getting a gig in the IPL, didn\u2019t get picked up there.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Paine, who wasn\u2019t involved in white-ball cricket for Australia at the time, insisted Smith wasn\u2019t worthy of a T20 spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cSteve Smith, as great a player as he is, no one will ever deny that, particularly in the lead up to that World Cup, was not playing well,\u201d Paine told SEN Tassie.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go back to the Dubai World Cup in 2021, people were saying why is he still in the team?<\/p>\n
\u201cThen he was replaced by Tim David, which most people had no issues with and I think if you go even deeper than that, and you look at why he wasn\u2019t playing\u2026 in his 20 innings leading up to that in T20, he was averaging low 20s at a very low strike rate and when you want to be batting at number four or number five, that just doesn\u2019t cut it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s why he wasn\u2019t playing at the position in the team was a middle-order spot where you want power and that doesn\u2019t suit Steve Smith.\u201d<\/p>\n
But since then, as Paine notes, Smith has fired back to form. The Sydney Sixers sensation enjoyed a brilliant BBL|12 campaign, where he played only five games but averaged an astonishing 86.5 runs.<\/p>\n
A spot at the top of the order is also vacant since Finch\u2019s international retirement and Paine believes all this, combined with Smith\u2019s swashbuckling ability with bat in hand, earns him a spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cFast forward to now, circumstances have completely changed. It\u2019s not embarrassing, the facts are the circumstances have changed. You\u2019ve got a spot that\u2019s opened up since Aaron Finch has retired,\u201d Paine said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince he\u2019s retired, Steve Smith, who has struggled traditionally in T20, has gone back to the Big Bash and absolutely dominated as an opening batter and demanded selection in Aaron Finch\u2019s spot, probably ahead of Travis Head, he would have been the other option to open the batting.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo to say it was embarrassing, I think it\u2019s actually really clear why he wasn\u2019t playing when he wasn\u2019t playing and now he\u2019s got a chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s going to play all the time but he\u2019s got a chance in South Africa to take his T20 form opening the batting into international cricket and if he can do that, he\u2019ll keep playing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he doesn\u2019t then Travis Head or someone like that will be knocking on the door to take his spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith will play under Mitch Marsh, who has earned T20 captaincy honours for the first time, in the T20s before likely featuring in five ODIs later in September.<\/p>\n