I like the idea of Steve Smith putting his hand up to open the batting for Australia’s Test side. It’s a very proactive move, and while there is obviously some risk attached he’s such a good player that I can’t see it not working to some degree.

Whether he actually gets better, or stays the same or becomes slightly worse because the ball moves around a bit, we don’t know what’s going to happen there. But just watching him over the last year, he’s had an indifferent time with the bat.

His best innings was probably at Lord’s, when he made a hundred during the second Test on last year’s Ashes tour. After he got that hundred I thought he would kick on and have another wonderful Ashes series. But that didn’t really happen.

He didn’t play badly, but he didn’t have the series we thought he was going to have. I don’t know if there’s a reason for that, but maybe he’s just looking for a new challenge, something to keep him going. Something to fire him up.

His most profitable position has been batting at No.3, where he averages 67, and there have been a number of times when he would have gone in early.

Even during his brilliant Ashes series in 2019, when he batted at No.4, he was always in early because Australia’s openers really struggled on that tour, be it David Warner partnering either Cameron Bancroft or Marcus Harris. So there’s no doubt Smith can handle the new ball because he’s done it in the past.

On the up: Steve Smith will open the batting for Australia this week.Credit: Getty

Opening the batting is purely a mindset thing. You’ve got to want to do it, and by the way Steve’s been talking he clearly does. And we all know that Steve’s pretty strong-willed. So I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. I think he’s doing it to force himself to be strong-minded, to say, ‘This is my challenge. I haven’t done it before. I don’t know how many years I’ve got playing Test cricket. But this is a brand new challenge for me. And I’m going to take it on.’ So I think from that point of view, it’s a really good thing.

The other point that came to mind straight away was something that chairman of selectors George Bailey said when he announced the side. I took it as a little bit of a shot across the bows of a few of the Aussie players when he said that he was delighted that Steve had put his hand up and wanted to open the batting, and that a lot of people had told him they didn’t want to open the batting.