Smith's terrible trot with the coin toss

Steve Smith has had zero luck at the toss during Australia's recent woeful slump, having lost six Test coin tosses on the trot.

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Smith chose to bowl first against New Zealand earlier this year and enjoyed a seven-wicket victory in Christchurch, a result that delivered Australia the No.1 Test ranking.

Since then, he has lost tosses in Pallekele, Galle and Colombo – where he called incorrectly on each occasion – and in Perth, Hobart and Adelaide, where Faf du Plessis has called correctly while Smith flipped the coin.

Australia have been defeated in the first five of those Tests, with the sixth starting Thursday afternoon at the Adelaide Oval.

If Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq calls correctly at the Gabba, Smith will equal the Australian record for consecutive coin toss losses, held by Joe Darling, whose terrible toss trot was in 1899-1902.

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Darling also lost five consecutive coin tosses on the 1905 Ashes tour, but Smith is unlikely to take a leaf out the former skipper's book, who famously challenged rival skipper Stanley Jackson to a wrestling match in lieu of a coin toss.

The 27-year-old current captain has a long way to go before he equals former England captain's Nasser Hussain record streak of 10 consecutive toss losses.

Smith might soon be singing from the same song sheet as coach Darren Lehmann, who is one of many high-profile cricket figures calling for the toss to be scrapped in Tests.

Concerned about the quality of county pitches being produced, the England and Wales Cricket Board rolled out a rule this year that gave the visiting side an option of bowling first if they wished. The toss still took place if both sides wanted to bat first.

Lehmann wants to go a step further.

"Do away with the toss, with the visiting side given the option of whether they want to bat or bowl," Lehmann wrote in his recently released autobiography.

"That way, the result is not decided by the toss of the coin; host boards have a greater incentive to produce decent pitches that are fair to both sides.

"Surfaces are either far too bland or, conversely, are far too heavily weighted in favour of the home side. In both instances, that does Test cricket no good at all.

"On the other hand, no one wants to see 600 plays 500 on pitches that offer the bowlers nothing."

Smith was less sure when asked earlier this month about the proposed rule change.

"I'm not sure at this stage. It's obviously pretty early days in the talks about that," Smith said.

"That's well above my pay grade as well – we'll do what we are told."

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