Labuschagne latest to endorse Smith's opening push

The campaign for Steve Smith to reinvent himself as a Test opener and potentially fill the now-vacant role has found another voice with Marnus Labuschagne endorsing his long-time batting mentor for the job.

While not directly advocating for Smith to replace freshly retired David Warner at the top of the order, Labuschagne claimed the fresh challenge of tackling the new-ball might be one that invigorates the former Australia skipper as he enters the autumn of a remarkable career.

Smith revealed during Australia's eight-wicket win in the third NRMA Insurance Test against Pakistan at the SCG he would be "pretty keen" to tackle opening if the national selection panel felt it represented the best option to possibly reinstate young allrounder Cameron Green to the middle-order.

Smith has batted at every position between three and nine during his 13-year tenure as a Test batter, but has never been deployed as an opener in his 187 innings to date.

But Labuschagne believes the 34-year-old possesses the skills and the appetite to take on the untried role and pointed to Smith's extraordinary record through Australia's upper and middle-order as evidence he has the tools to succeed.

"He wants it, that's for sure," Labuschagne told cricket.com.au in the aftermath of Australia's 3-0 clean sweep of Pakistan.

"And jeez, what can't that guy do?

"He averages 67 at four, 62 at three, 58 at five.

"I'm sure if we go down that path and give it to him, he's going to average in the 60s opening.

"I think it could be a good challenge for him.

"It could be one that gets him out and gets his beans going, out (to bat) straightaway, ball swinging around and nipping around, he's got a beautiful technique to combat any type of bowling.

"There's probably no one you want out there more."

As Warner conceded during his post-retirement media conference in Sydney yesterday, he boasted no pedigree as a first-class opener when thrust into the role and he finishes his Test career as Australia's most prolific scorer at the head of the innings.

The difficulty selectors face in replacing Warner is underscored by his career record that shows 8747 runs at an average of 45.08, bettered only by England's Alastair Cook (11,845 at 44.86), India's Sunil Gavaskar (9607 at 50.29) and South Africa's Graeme Smith (9030 at 49.07) among fellow openers.

Only one Australia opener– Ian Redpath (66.63) – can boast a better Test average than Smith's current 53.5 when opening the batting after turning 34.

And the benchmark for regular Test openers (five innings or more) aged 34 or over remains England's Andy Sandham who averaged 77.4 in his seven knocks as a 39-year-old in 1930.

However, incumbent opener Usman Khawaja is averaging 52.5 since being elevated to the role in 2022 at age 35, and others such as Simon Katich (49.92) and Chris Rogers (44.36) excelled after installed at the top of the order late in their careers.

Australia men's team coach (and national selector) Andrew McDonald acknowledged shifting Smith up the order might potentially solve one problem but create another, while noting there were other members of his batting line-up who had not exhibited the same enthusiasm as Smith for Warner's job.

They include Labuschagne who claimed he would embrace the opener's responsibility if asked to by selectors and captain Pat Cummins, but is "happy where I am" at number three in the Test line-up.

"He (Smith) had some strong thoughts on that," McDonald said today when asked his view on Smith's unexpected enthusiasm for elevation in the order.

"He made those public, so we'll consider all options.

"It's nice to have him putting his hand up.

"I think there were a few others that weren't putting their hand up (but) Steve at three or four is pretty appetising also.

"You've got to make sure you're not removing the strengths of the team in the search to fill a gap also.

"So there's a balance within that."

Where there's unlikely to be any change for Australia's starting XI in the first of two NRMA Insurance Tests against West Indies that begins at Adelaide Oval on January 17 is in the bowling personnel.

Despite Cummins noting ahead of the Test summer kicking off that he and fellow quicks Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, along with veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon, "won't be resting", Australia had auxiliary seamers Scott Boland and Lance Morris ready to roll if needed.

But the fact the record-breaking bowling quartet (with help from all-rounders Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head) captured all 20 Pakistan wickets inside four days of each of the three Tests means any potential workload issues have been minimised.

As a result, McDonald doesn't expect any change to the bowling line-up at least for the first of the West Indies Tests with the second of that series to be played with a pink ball in a day-night fixture at the Gabba in Brisbane from January 25.

"In the background, we plan for five-day Test matches and if we were to go five days, that's going to put immense stresses and strain on the bowling unit," McDonald said today.

"In the first Test match in Perth where it was a shortened second innings for the bowling unit (30.2 overs), that gives you the flexibility to be able to then push them a little bit harder throughout the Pakistan series.

"The players want to play every Test match, it's really important (and) we want to pick the best Test team that we can at any particular time.

"So it's just striking that balance in how many games they can play without compromising their long-term futures.

"They've probably got better across the (Pakistan) series, in particular Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins.

"And Mitch Starc. I think his ball speed in this (SCG) game was at its highest.

"So there's nothing to indicate that they'll need a rest.

"We've got a little bit of a gap to the first West Indies Test match so I could see pretty much an unchanged bowling line-up for Adelaide."

NRMA Insurance Test series v West Indies

Tour match: January 10-13, Karen Rolton Oval (10.30am AEDT)

First Test: January 17-21, Adelaide Oval (10.30am AEDT)

Second Test: January 25-29, Gabba (3pm AEDT)

West Indies Test squad: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Alzarri Joseph (vc), Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Kirk McKenzie, Alick Athanaze, Kavem Hodge, Justin Greaves, Joshua DaSilva, Akeem Jordan, Gudakesh Motie, Kemar Roach, Kevin Sinclair, Tevin Imlach, Shamar Joseph, Zachary McCaskie

Men's Dettol ODI Series v West Indies

February 2: MCG, 2.30pm AEDT

February 4: SCG, 2.30pm AEDT

February 6: Manuka Oval, Canberra 2.30pm AEDT

Men's Dettol T20I Series v West Indies

February 9: Blundstone Arena, Hobart 7.00pm AEDT

February 11: Adelaide Oval, 7pm AEDT

February 13: Perth Stadium, 7pm AEDT