Australia’s middle order once again papers over massive batting problems against West Indies

Australia expected Steve Smith to bolster its batting, but the all-time great was just another moving part in a familiar top-order collapse that must leave selectors worried ahead of the Ashes.

Australia’s middle order is delivering bailout packages like the US Government after the subprime crisis.

If Aussie fans felt like they were waking up to a familiar-looking scorecard on Friday morning, it’s because they were.

In the first innings of the World Test Championship final 4-67 became 5-146. In the first Test against the West Indies, it was 3-22 to 4-111 in the first innings and then 4-65 to 5-167 in the second.

DAY ONE REPORT: Middle order fight helps Australia take day one honours

And then on day one at the National Cricket Stadium, Beau Webster and Alex Carey injected a fresh stimulus package after the Aussies fell to a precarious 5-110 early in the second session.

CTRL C, CTRL V.

By the time Carey pulled Justin Greaves to midwicket not long after tea, the tourists had recovered to 6-222. Given the shallowness of the West Indian batting, and the enduring quality of the Aussies attack, it was a steady - edging towards commanding - position.

That Pat Cummins, having chosen to bat, was later done in by an Alzarri Joseph gazunder, suggested that Australia was in a strong spot on a wicket not looking likely to get any easier for batting.

Another angle of the Pat Cummins dismissal

In the lead-up to this match, Carey discussed the slight change to his grip around a year ago. Whether it is cause and effect is impossible to know, but Carey had enjoyed an excellent 12 months with the bat.

To put into context how rich a vein of form he has been in, his free-flowing 63 on day one actually led to a fall in his first-class batting average for 2025.

Webster, though not as expansive as the gloveman, continued his seamless entrance into Test cricket, notching his fourth half-century in six Tests to date, and pushing his average - at least temporarily - above 50.

Australia’s Beau Webster celebrates his half century. Picture: AFP

Yet again, he held his own in challenging conditions, played sensibly, and put a dear price on his wicket until he ran himself out trying to claim the strike while batting with the tail.

The same could not be said of a couple of his teammates up the order.

Webster, Travis Head and Carey have six half-centuries between them for the series and look bankable for the medium-term at No.5, 6 and 7. Their output, combined with that of the bowlers, is buying Australian selectors time for things to hopefully click up top. Hopefully being the pertinent word in that sentence.

Sam Konstas looked better than he did in Bridgetown, but that is damning the teen with faint praise.

Anderson Phillip celebrates the dismissal of Sam Konstas, who fell cheaply again. Picture: AFP

He played some nice shots in his 25 on the opening morning, but they were interspersed with jarring hooks bereft of footwork.

Konstas played and missed to three straight balls from Jayden Seales in the fifth over. The youngster looked on borrowed time, and so it proved as he edged a ball well outside off that he didn’t need to touch.

Cameron Green is on paper making progress. Four and a duck in the WTC final, three and 15 last week in Barbados and 26 in the first innings at St. George’s. He took eight balls to get off the mark but started to build into his innings batting alongside Head, consolidating after the Aussies lost 3-3 either side of drinks.

Cameron Green looked more fluid at the crease - but still couldn’t capitalise on a strong start. Picture: AFP

He was starting to punish stray deliveries as the shine wore off the Dukes, before popping a catch to John Campbell at cover in the over before lunch. For the second straight innings, Green was offered a life as the Windies opener shelled a sitter. And yet even more inexplicably, Green followed a wide one from Seales, falling to a catch at gully from the final ball of the session.

Shame on you if you drop me once, shame on me if I throw away my wicket later.

Had the Windies won the first Test - and they were well and truly in the game after two days - this would be a very different conversation.

Steve Smith dismissed for 3 in his return from finger injury.

There would be a greater sense of urgency in the discussion around Konstas and Green. But Australia’s two youngest players are being protected by the senior core, a categorisation of which Webster increasingly has a case to be included.

There is no imminent cause for panic. But Konstas and Green have done nothing yet in this series to suggest they are an improvement on Marnus Labuschagne, who was plugging away in the nets facing Sean Abbott during the lunch break.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

While you were sleeping, Australia’s top order struggled once more – looking every bit as frayed as Pat Cummins’ baggy green.

Read on for the moments you missed overnight.

YOU WIN SOME, YOU LOSE SOME

Pat Cummins’ missing baggy green is still missing. The Australian skipper again turned up to the toss wearing his old fraying cap that he had intended to replace ahead of the first Test only for the new one to go missing between the pre-series photo shoot and day one in Bridegtown. The hunt goes on.

Steve Smith dismissed for 3 in his return from finger injury.

DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION

It is no great secret that Steve Smith is finicky with his batting. It doesn’t take much to unsettle him at the crease, and a wandering child behind the bowler’s arm in the Grenada grandstand caught his eye. The child was eventually collected by an adult, but Smith never recovered. His return innings ended the very next ball, miscuing a ball that probably wasn’t quite there to be pulled to deep backward square leg to make it a 3-3 collapse for Australia.

NOT EASY BEING GREEN

Sam Konstas had already lived dangerously to get to 25 before he tamely poked one from Anderson Phillip to wicketkeeper Shai Hope. And Cameron Green should have been out on the same score when John Campbell dropped a straightforward catch in the final over before lunch. And yet Green still couldn’t even survive until the interval, tugging at a ball that moved away from him and going to Jayden Seales with the final ball of the session for 26, caught at gully by Roston Chase.

Jayden Seales (L) of West Indies celebrates the dismissal of Cameron Green. Picture: AFP

ALMOST CAUGHT SHORT

Things could have gone from bad to worse for Australia when Alex Carey was sent back halfway down the pitch after having a single turned down by Beau Webster on 10. Carey would have been long gone had Shamar Joseph’s shy from midwicket been accurate but the Windies quick probably had more time than he realised.

Originally published as Australia’s middle order once again papers over massive batting problems against West Indies