Steve Smith in action against India
Former Australian cricketer Dean Jones on Tuesday questioned Steve Smith's spot in Australia's T20 setup saying that the team requires power-hitting batsmen like Glenn Maxwell. Jones also reckoned that Tim Paine should remain the captain of the Test side despite Smith's two year captaincy ban being over.
"I think Tim Paine has done a magnificent job anyway. And we also need to ask this question -- does Steve Smith want to be captain? We are only assuming he wants to be captain. The second question we need to ask is -- Does Steve Smith fit into Australia's T20 team? And anyway Aaron Finch has also done a great job as the white-ball captain," he said on Sportscreen's YouTube page.
"My take is that Steve isn't a big hitter of the ball. At 2/20 he will do the job for you, but at 1/80 is the person who will do the job for you? Probably not.
"You may want someone like a (Glenn) Maxwell and other hitters to come in at the time. So where does he (Smith) quite fit into the team?"
Jones also said he is looking forward to premier batsman Smith being fitter.
Smith has played 39 T20Is for Australia scoring 681 runs at 29.6 with four half-centuries. Besides, he has been part of two T20I World Cups - 2010 and 2016 - scoring 117 runs in 11 matches at 19.50 with one half-century.
On former skipper Michael Clarke's comments that Australia were nice to the Indian team during the 2018-19 tour because they wanted to not upset Virat Kohli and thereby lose their lucrative IPL contracts, Jones said: "I'll tell you the reason why they went quiet on Virat. Because we went quiet when Viv Richards came out to bat. We went quiet on Javed Miandad, on Martin Crowe. And there is a reason behind that -- You don't upset the bear, you don't upset Virat Kohli or MS Dhoni because this is what they like - a confrontation.
"So don't give them any oxygen. But I find this reason about not upsetting Virat because of IPL contracts a bit rubbish. Is Virat going to stop anyone from playing? That is down to the coaches and managers."
