Coach Andrew McDonald has strongly backed the reshuffle of Smith to the top of the order,in place of the retired David Warner,and Cameron Green back in the side at No.4,despite both failing during first Test against the West Indies in Adelaide. Australia won a low-scoring match by 10 wickets in little more than two days.
There was pandemonium when Smith nicked Shamar Joseph’s first ball in Test cricket to be caught at second slip,but it was a ball wide enough to leave. Smith’s homespun technique has worked brilliantly for him during more than a decade of dominating attacks,but his shuffle across the stumps sometimes means he is playing at balls he could leave.
McDonald believes that not having played against Joseph before was a significant factor in the early dismissals of Smith and Marnus Labuschagne,who was caught at fine leg hooking for 10 in the first innings.
“Sight unseen is always difficult for batters when you haven’t seen someone and got used to their rhythm and the cues that they present,” McDonald said. “Sometimes you do get drawn into shots you potentially don’t play,and we saw that with Marnus as well. I think it was maybe his[Joseph’s] second bouncer. He probably didn’t have the cues and rushed him a little bit and bought about his demise.
“So we feel as though now that there’s less unknowns going into the second Test match – we’ve had a good look at them. A lot of those little decision-making errors that may have crept in,I think will iron themselves out.”
Usman Khawaja leaves the field after being hit on the jaw by a bouncer in Adelaide on Friday.AP
Khawaja will require ongoing concussion tests in the coming days before he is declared fit to play in the second Test,beginning on Thursday in Brisbane.
Khawaja was shaken up after he was hit on the jaw by a bouncer from impressive debutant Joseph with Australia requiring just one run to win on Friday. The Test finished an hour into day three with Manus Labuschagne hitting the winning run after Khawaja retired hurt.
Steve Smith made 12 runs on Wednesday in his first knock as a Test opener.Getty
Khawaja passed an initial concussion test at the ground and scans later cleared him of a fractured jaw,but Cricket Australia protocols require ongoing examinations in case of delayed concussion.
“He had a check in today and all is fine,” a Cricket Australia spokesman said on Saturday. “He will have more tests in the next few days.”
McDonald said he was “hopeful that he will be OK[to play].”
Australia were fortunate Khawaja’s injury was so late in the game and not as serious as first feared after concussion sub Matthew Renshaw was released from the squad during the Test to play for the Brisbane Heat in a BBL final on Friday night.
McDonald defended the decision to release Renshaw,who would have been forced to rush from the Gold Coast to Adelaide on Saturday morning had Khawaja been more seriously injured and the West Indies been more competitive and forced the game into a fourth day.
“We consider the risk when we release players and I think it’s about point five per cent of a chance in terms of concussion happening,so it was ironic that about the first time we’ve let a player go back to Big Bash there was a head knock,” McDonald said. “Fortunately enough,the game was in a position where we thought that it wasn’t going to be a higher risk,necessarily. So we were happy for Renners to go back and play for the Heat.”
McDonald claimed that the late injury to Khawaja would not deter the selectors,McDonald,chairman George Bailey and Tony Dodemaide,from releasing players to their BBL clubs in future.
“Each decision is in isolation,” McDonald said. “It depends on the circumstances,what day it is in the Test match and how far it’s progressed,those types of things. We usually carry around 13 players. Now we went to 12 in this case.”
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