‘Shocked’ Smith ready to move down the order for Head

Australia have played five out of their nine matches in the group-stage of the ICC ODI World Cup with practically a 14-member squad.

Despite being a part of the squad, Travis Head watched Australia's first four matches from his home in Adelaide, as he healed from a fracture on his left arm.

Head finally joined the team in Delhi before their match against the Netherlands and is now ready to return to the playing XI.

To accommodate the opener in the XI, Steve Smith, Australia's designated one-down batsman, is likely to drop down to No. 4, a prospect that has 'shocked' the veteran batter.

"I got told if Trav [Travis Head] was playing that I was going to be batting four. I'll do whatever the team wants. I've got a pretty good record at three, so I was a bit shocked in a way," Smith was quoted as saying by the Cricket Australia website yesterday.

The 34-year-old was having an underwhelming tournament till yesterday, when he made 71 off 68 balls against the Netherlands - a match the Aussies won by 309 runs.

But now, Smith will have to drop down from No.3, a position where he averages 52.84 in ODIs, to accommodate Head in the opening slot and Mitchell Marsh at one down in their next match in the World Cup against New Zealand on Saturday.

Smith batting at No.4 also indicates the probable omission of Marnus Labuschagne, who had hit a 47-ball 62 against the Dutch at No.4 in Australia's run fest in Delhi.

Head's return to the XI puts Australia in a similar position to their previous campaign in the ODI World Cup in 2019, when an in-form Usman Khawaja forced them to play with three openers and push down Smith to No.4. 

After the World Cup in England, Smith returned to his favoured No.3 slot in ODIs and didn't have to budge from the position till now.

The right-hander, however, remains optimistic to find his groove at No.4 and string together some good scores.

"You want to be trying to get everything together and be playing as consistently as possible towards the back-end [of the tournament].

"Once you get that groove and get in that sort of zone of playing, the way you want to play – I think Davey [David Warner] is in that sort of patch at the moment – you can get some scores on the bounce, and obviously when your top order is scoring good runs, you've set yourself up nicely," Smith concluded.