Steve Smith will open the batting for the first time in his stellar 14-year Test career when Australia face West Indies in their two-Test series starting next week in Adelaide.
With the retirement of veteran left-hander David Warner, the 34-year-old Smith will slide up the order, allowing all-rounder Cameron Green to slot into the vacant number four spot.
The George Bailey-led selection panel on Wednesday recalled 27-year-old left-handed opener Matthew Renshaw in a 13-man squad which also includes 34-year-old speedster Scott Boland.
“For all intents and purposes, this is where Steve wants to stay. One of the things I’m really excited about the change is that I think he’s really motivated and energised and excited about the opportunity, and fingers crossed that can provide some longevity in the format,” Bailey told reporters.
“For someone who has achieved as much as he has over such a long period of time across all formats, it’s a challenge or an itch he’d like to scratch and ultimately for us, as a team, it’s something that fits.
“It’s selfless that someone who’s had such success in one position or a couple of positions in the middle order, that he’s willing and hungry to have a crack at something different,” he added.
The right-handed Smith has racked up 9 514 runs from 105 Tests at an average of 58, with 32 hundreds, to be Australia’s current leading run-scorer.
Against West Indies, he averages 150, having scored three hundreds with a best of an unbeaten 200 in Perth two years ago.
While Renshaw has been recalled a year after his last Test, it is Green who has been waiting in the wings who will start in the XI.
Green averages 33 with the bat and 36 with his seam in 24 Tests, and Bailey said he was the ideal candidate for the role in the middle order.
“It provides an opportunity to slot Greeny into number four where he’s had success for Western Australia,” Bailey explained.
“The regard in which we hold Cameron and the way the rest of that batting order is functioning left us feeling we have someone we think is pretty talented who was potentially going to find it pretty hard to get any Test cricket in the next 12 months or so.”
The opening Test bowls off January 17 at Adelaide Oval with the second one in Brisbane starting eight days later.
Embattled West Indies have not won a Test series against Australia in three decades. (CMC)
SQUAD – Pat Cummins (captain), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc.
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