Mark Taylor wants Steve Smith back in Australia's T20I set-up

Former Australian captain Mark Taylor wants Steve Smith back in the T20I set-up, saying Australia can’t fill the entire top order with hitters. David Warner announced his retirement after the T20 World Cup 2024 and Australia replaced him with Jake Fraser-McGurk, who registered scores of 0, 16 and 0 in his debut series against Scotland.

Smith has phenomenal numbers in the 20-over format since 2023, slamming 829 runs in 20 innings at an average of 51.81 and a strike rate of 155.2. All those runs have come as an opener. "I'm interested to see what Australia does from here on with that top order to replace Dave Warner,” said Taylor on Nine's Wide World of Sports show.

“It seems to be at the moment it's about putting more and more hitters in there and eventually one of them will come off. I think that's a bit of a flawed plan because I'd like to see Steve Smith back in our order somewhere.”

Australia clean swept Scotland in the recently concluded series but Taylor is more worried about what they will do on slow surfaces. The Men in Yellow failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the 2024 T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies, losing to Afghanistan in the Super 8s.

"If or when you get a slow pitch as we did in the recent World Cup, we lost to Afghanistan which forced us out of that World Cup, we needed someone like Steve Smith in that middle order. I still think the better batsmen in the world will bat well in all formats so I just worry about our philosophy that Warner's out, let's go with another hitter.

"I'd still like Australian selectors to think about putting Steve Smith back in the side somewhere to add a bit of stability for a slow pitch. On a flat pitch sure, put all your hitters in and go for it, try and make 200. On a slower pitch, sometimes 150 can be hard to chase as we saw when Australia played Afghanistan in the recent World Cup.”

Australia are scheduled to play three T20Is, starting on September 11, and five ODIs, starting on September 19, in England. Smith is part of the ODI set-up but hasn’t been picked for the T20I series.

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