Steve Smith is running out of opportunities to reclaim his place in Australia’s best T20I XI

Four days after the 2023 World Cup final, the run into next year’s men’s T20 World Cup started with an India-Australia five-match series. Smith was the only player who featured in both Australia’s World Cup final starting XI and the one that stepped out in Visakhapatnam for the first game of the series.

The match in itself was a thriller. Josh Inglis’ record-equalling double-century set the tone on a flat surface which saw India chase down 209 with a ball to spare. But, despite Inglis’ brilliance and Australia posting a mammoth score, Smith’s innings was a talking point.

He made 52 off 41 balls, falling to a comical run out after he slipped playing a scoop shot. The start to his innings was good, taking 14 runs off the first two overs and relieving the pressure off Matthew Short. But, as the innings continued, he looked increasingly disjointed, off strike for most of the next eight overs while Inglis heaved away at the other end. By the ten-over point, he’d scored ten runs off as many balls in the preceding eight overs, been dropped once and faced seven dot balls.

There were signs, as the innings entered its last five overs, that Smith was beginning to find his rhythm. In the four balls before he got out, he hit two fours and seemed intent on accelerating. But, having opened the innings, he only reached his half-century with the ball before he was dismissed in the 16th over. The match was also the first time Smith opened an innings in a T20I.

Australia have played four T20Is since their last match of the 2022 T20 World Cup. In their three-match whitewash over South Africa in September, Travis Head opened the batting alongside Short. With Head in the squad for the India series but rested for the first game, opening will more than likely be a stop-gap for Smith rather than a serious option to be Aaron Finch’s permanent replacement.

Smith didn’t play in Australia’s series against South Africa. Visakhapatnam was his first T20I in over a year, having only played one game in the 2022 World Cup. That game – Australia’s last of the tournament, with their fate already sealed – marked the end of a very un-Australian campaign. At that time, with Cam Green’s rise and Tim David’s run of form, Smith’s T20I career seemed to be hanging by a thread. His inclusion in this series, however, opens a door for him to reclaim his position ahead of next year’s World Cup.

There should be no doubt over how good Smith is at what he does. He has an incredible across-format record and, in white-ball cricket, has played the anchor role effectively for Australia for years. He also hit back-to-back centuries in the BBL last season, the second coming off just 54 balls. But, there’s no escaping that he hasn’t been able to replicate that fire-power on the international T20 stage.

The 50 he scored on Tuesday was his first in four years and only his fifth in all of his 54 matches in the format. Looking back to the 2021 World Cup, while he played an important innings against South Africa in Australia’s tournament opener, in three out of their final four matches he wasn’t required to bat. While Smith is an effective anchor, having a specialist batter to do that job in T20Is is becoming less and less important, in favour of a player who can both soak up pressure and explode at the end. Smith is the former, but he isn’t the latter.

With Mitchell Marsh the newly appointed captain, Head in place at the top, Inglis showing what he’s capable of and, when the ODI World Cup winners return, a settled middle-order, Australia have the luxury of not needing Smith to settle tremors in their batting. The versatility of their lineup is enough to squeeze him out of the first XI. But, with a packed calendar and three T20I series to go before Australia start their T20 World Cup campaign, there could be opportunities for Smith to snatch his place back, and go from squad member to first pick. If he is to do that, this India series is one of the chances he needs to take.