"I’d love to see him bat at No.4, but then they have to work out who doesn’t play" -  Langer wishes for Smith to return to his original position  

Former Australia opening batter and head coach Justin Langer feels that Steve Smith must drop down to No.4 in the red-ball batting unit. The ace batter was pushed up the order following David Warner's retirement while Cameron Green was handed the No.4 position in the new setup.

Smith, who had never played at the top of the order in his red-ball career, was first tried out in the home series against the West Indies. He largely failed to impress, barring the lone-standing knock in the second innings of the second Test where Australia lost at The Gabba. He scored only 51 runs across four innings during the tour of New Zealand.

The move to tinker with Smith's position in the batting line-up has not been widely accepted with the likes of Matthew Hayden and Usman Khawaja voicing their reservations about the same. Now, fellow former opener Justin Langer has also lent his opinion regarding the matter.

“He’s the greatest player we’ve had. Great players adapt, they can bat anywhere in the order. For the Australian cricket team, I think he’s best suited to bat number four,” Langer said on the Cricket Et Al podcast.

I think it’s a really specialised position,” Langer said of batting at No.4. “It’s not that he can’t do it [open the batting]. I’d love to see him bat at No.4, but then they have to work out who doesn’t play. My observation was that it was more about trying to get Cameron Green in and Mitch Marsh had taken that [all-rounders’] role, but they wanted to get the best young player into the XI," he added.

Australia have the option of promoting one of the opening batters in the domestic circuit in case they do decide to pull the plug on Smith's stint as an opener. The likes of Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft, and others have been consistent in the red-ball arena in Australia as part of the Sheffield Shield as well as in the county circuit.

"I’m pretty easy batting anywhere" - Steve Smith

Australia have a huge call to make regarding Steve Smith's position in the batting order keeping the upcoming Border-Gavaskar series in mind. The Men in Yellow will need the middle order at full strength against a rampant Indian bowling unit, who are on the lookout to win the series Down Under for the third time in a row.

“We’ll see what that looks like ... whether they want me to continue [opening the batting] or go back to three or four. We’ll wait and see. I’m pretty easy batting anywhere," Smith said at the recent Cricket Australia content capture.

The 35-year-old has had tremendous success at No.4 over the years, establishing himself as one of the greatest red-ball batters of all time.

The 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar series is scheduled to begin from November 22 in Perth.