Melbourne: Australian captain Pat Cummins announced that key batsman Steve Smith will bat at number four in the much-anticipated ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final against South Africa at Lord's.
As the ICC World Test Championship Final 2025 approaches on June 11, Australia is focused on a critical batting choice.
With various options vying to seize the centrestage, skipper Cummins has selected batting legend Steve Smith to fill a vital position in the middle order.
Cummins told The Grade Cricketer on Prime Video Australia that Smudge would be batting fourth. Everyone else, I am unwilling to, but I can confirm that Steve Smith will be number four.
Smith has scored 6531 runs in 120 Test innings at number four, averaging 61. 61. This includes 23 hundreds and 26 half-centuries.
The veteran hitter had previously featured in Australia's victory in the previous WTC final in 2023, hitting a first-innings century that paved the way for a decisive victory.
As they prepare to defend the WTC mace, Cummins spoke about the prospect of being the first team to do so since the competition's founding in 2019.
Following his triumph in 2023, there is a lot of talk of attempting to retain it. Go defend it. It is not real until you reach the final, according to him.
Now that we have achieved it, winning another ICC trophy would be amazing. It is a tournament that every other Test-playing country is fighting for, therefore playing at Lord's represents a very good couple of years, according to Cummins.
The Australian skipper also stressed the importance of the event and the problems it posed.
I believe it demonstrates performance over two years. However, there are some variances. Even in ICC World Cups, the situations are generally quite comparable, he noted.
A Test tournament requires you to win virtually everything at home, but we had to travel to Sri Lanka and win in difficult spinning circumstances, according to Pat Cummins.
Go to New Zealand and defeat a very strong team at home. So, I believe it demonstrates that you must truly be a full team over a several-year period to reach the final, he added.
We just missed out on qualifying that first year (20192021), but I believe we are a better team now than we were then. We lost a few games at home. But, certainly, I believe that two (WTC championships) would be amazing. One is, I believe, a rather excellent illustration of how successful we have been in recent years, according to the Australian captain.
While Australia will be appearing in their second consecutive WTC final, South Africa qualified for their first by finishing top of the World Test Championship rankings.
Cummins hailed the Proteas, believing that Temba Bavumaled's squad has several match-winners capable of offering a challenge.
They appear to participate in every event. They have a lot of experience, especially with whiteball teams that compete in several franchise leagues. Rabada, Maharaj, and Bavuma have been playing cricket for many years, according to the Australian captain.
They have some very good fast bowlers; they usually have not just one or two main guys, but four or six that they can call upon, he said.
And yes, some hitters have scored a lot of local runs despite the fact that you haven't seen much of them. (We have) used the majority of the players on the roster, but not all. There is always some mystery surrounding South Africa, since we do not compete them as frequently as, for example, India, he said.
