Australia confident Steve Smith will play third Test at Headingley

There’s an unscientific confidence in the Australian camp that Steve Smith will play this Thursday in the third Test at Leeds.

Steve Smith watches from the Lord’s balcony during day four of the second Test. Picture: Getty Images

There’s an unscientific confidence in the Australian camp that Steve Smith will play this Thursday in the third Test at Leeds, but the concerns about the form of David Warner and Cameron Bancroft are quantifiable and of the sort that make a selector’s head hurt.

Experience says players take a week to recover from concussion, but the best batsman in world cricket has only a couple of days to prove his mind is sharp and any ­effects from the frightening blow he suffered at Lord’s are past.

Tim Paine is expecting to see Smith in the XI and his optimism is shared by others. In the unlikely event he does prove fit, it is hard to see how Marnus Labuschagne turns his casual role into a permanent position, despite the batsman showing enormous skill and courage when he was drafted in for Smith on the last day at Lord’s.

The quick turnaround will tell against the bowlers and the ­concussed.

Selectors have made it clear it is unlikely any of the seamers will play all five Tests and there will be a close eye kept on both Peter Siddle and Pat Cummins after reasonably heavy workloads in the second Test.

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The veteran Siddle looked a ­little sore at the back end of the Lord’s Test and that may be enough to prompt a rethink. Cummins’ strength is his endurance and consistent hostility.

Mitchell Starc is straining at the leash and the long-term plan has been to play James Pattinson in the next match.

Warner and Bancroft are ­approaching the red zone. Both need runs in Leeds or they will find themselves at a crisis point when there are only two matches ­remaining in the series.

Their next steps needs to be confident ones. Opening is a high-risk occupation. Paine acknowledges it has been hard for all the openers in this ­series.

“I think if you look at top-order batting across the two teams it shows you it’s probably a pretty difficult place to be batting,” he said. “Yes, those guys would like more runs. We know how good David is. He’s got 7000 Test runs at 50 and Cameron Bancroft I thought in this game looked pretty good, faced a lot of balls … probably would’ve liked to have scored a few more runs, but I thought he acquitted himself pretty well again against some pretty high-quality bowling.”

Bancroft is young and interchangeable with Marcus Harris; Warner’s woes carry more gravity. Senior players make a bigger hole in the air.

Warner’s 76 Tests, 6381 runs at an average of 46.9 are one thing. His competitiveness, energy around the team and his legend make him a prize scalp for the ­opposition.

Warner’s strength is his self-­belief — he is in his own mind ­indomitable. If he gets out it is always bad luck, never down to his own failings. When he misses out in the first innings he wipes his mouth and assures people he is the king of the second innings. To see a hint of self doubt at the age of 32 would be a concern. If he has ­become aware of his own mortality he could hasten his own end.

Many things change in a man’s life. The 12-month ban made him more determined to get back in the team than ever. But how much energy has it taken to win back what was his. What was the toll?

He has three daughters now.

Witnessing Smith fall to the pitch after being hit by a Jofra Archer missile would have been alarming for Warner, who was there when Phillip Hughes fell in November 2014.

He had to leave the field after being hit in a practice game by Josh Hazlewood in a similar area a few years back. Warner reported flashbacks at the time.

Forced to first slip by the ­absence of Smith, he was too wide to get a hand to one chance and spilt another difficult opportunity when Nathan Lyon was bowling after Smith was hit.

Warner has not made it into the fifth over of any match in this series. It is his worst run with the bat since the start of his career in 2013. Ricky Ponting formed a close relationship with Warner during the World Cup and returns to England as a commentator this week.

The former captain has one of the sharpest minds in the game and his presence will be an asset. He told the cricket.com website this week that the opener needs to take the game on.

Bancroft has character that coaches believe counters his technical flaws. He has soaked up balls in both Tests, which is an essential part of an opener’s job description. He faced 106 balls at Lord’s and 56 in the first Test.

Australia still have the upper hand and the advantage in the ­series. England won back some of the momentum at Lord’s but did not win the Test. Paine’s side is one win from retaining the Ashes and there is an expectation that Archer will not be as intimidating away from the ­inconsistent bounce Lord’s offered.

“If you would have said we would be 1-0 up after two Tests we would have taken that every day of the week,” Paine said after the match. “We are happy with the position we are in now. We were off the mark a little bit in this Test match particularly with our catching and decision ­reviews. We got a few of them wrong. But the pleasing thing is as a bowling group we created a whole lot of chances and we batted for 100 overs in our first innings and got a lot of overs into their bowlers, which is something we wanted to do and try to do each Test.

“We think if we can do that we will get some return at the back-end of the series. We look forward to get to Headingley, the first hour again will be important, as it has been here and at ­Edgbaston.”

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