The Australian side has a couple of injuries at the top of their batting order to worry about at the moment. Their permanent opener David Warner has been officially ruled out of the first Test against India whereas Will Pucovski is still not sure of recovering from the blow to his head.
While Warner's injury came in the ODI series, Pucovski's injury came back during Australia A's practice game where he was hit on the helmet by Kartik Tyagi. He retired hurt on 23 in the second innings and did not take further part in the game.
AUS v IND 2020-21: Steve Smith speaks on potential return to Australian captaincy
If Pucovski gets ruled out, Joe Burns might bat at the top of the order and Steve Smith might be asked to bat at No. 3. The star Australian batsman is ready to bat wherever the team needs him.
Smith told reporters during a virtual press conference, "That doesn’t bother me, I have batted at number three in the past as well, I am happy to bat at number three or four."
"When you bat at number three you are sometimes in the second ball of the game or the first over of the game, that’s the reality of batting there so, someone at three could certainly go up the top, whether that’s spoken about, I am not sure,” he added," he added.
In Test cricket, Smith has scored 1744 runs at an average of 67.07 batting one down while he's registered 3701 runs at an average of 74.02 batting at No. 4.
(With inputs from ANI inputs)