'Smith should open' - Adam Gilchrist advises Australia to enter Champions Trophy with new opening pair

The Australian team is going through a bit of a turmoil as their key players are out of Champions Trophy 2025 due to injuries. The likes of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and all-rounder, Mitchell Marsh are ruled out of the upcoming ICC event. With this development, the captaincy mantle has fallen upon Steven Smith and the batter who was stripped off captaincy in 2018, is poised to lead the side in a major tournament.

As the World Cup 2023 champions will enter the fray with a relatively young squad, former Australia wicketkeeper-batter, Adam Gilchrist has advised the team to play Smith as an opener alongside Travis Head. Despite Smith not delivering with the bat of late when he was experimented as an opener, Gilchrist has backed the veteran solely to keep a left-and-right combination. He also put forth Matthew Short’s name for the slot. 

Also Read: Champions Trophy 2025: How the teams are shaping up

“It’s a challenging one at the moment, but Smith should open. I didn’t see where he was slotted in the game against Sri Lanka. Obviously, Travis is going to be there — he’s fresh and fit. I also like Matt Short being there — he can form a nice left-hand-right-hand combination — that would be the preferred way for me to go,” said Gilchrist on ABC Summer Grandstand show. 

"But I do think Smith can open — we have seen him do that in 20-over cricket really well," he added.

As an opener, the veteran has batted in six matches and 10 innings across formats and has managed to score just 242 runs with an average of 30.25 and a highest score of unbeaten 91. His strike rate is as low as 63.68 and has only two 50+ scores to his name.

However, it is to be noted that Smith has never opened in ODIs. In the most recent series he was involved in, against Sri Lanka, he scored 12 and 29 in the respective two matches.