Steve Smith, star Australia batter, revealed the reason behind his returning to the no.4 batting spot in Test cricket. He joked that his teammates opener Usman Khawaja and no.3 spot owner Marnus Labuschagne hate seeing him bat before them.

On a serious note, Smith said that he is happy to bat wherever the team wants him to, stating that no.4 is where he has scored most of his runs.

Australia's head coach, Andrew McDonald, stated last week that he and captain Pat Cummins had agreed to return Smith to the No. 4 batting position in Test cricket after a brief time in the opening slot.

Smith added that when McDonald asked him what his ideal batting position was, he replied 'four,' but he never asked management to place him back in the middle order.

"I got asked where I'd prefer to bat, and I said four. I didn't ask (to move) though. I also said I'm happy batting wherever. I'm not too fussed. I got asked where my preference would be, and I said four. I saw a few things last week saying that I've requested to bat at four. That wasn't the case. I said I'm happy to bat wherever you'd like me to bat but, yeah, four would be my ideal position," ESPNcricinfo quoted Smith as saying.

He said that his teammates, particularly Labuschagne and Khawaja, were unhappy to see him bat in the top order, and with all-rounder Cameron Green ruled out of the India Test series, it was clear that he needed to be moved back to No. 4.

"Obviously there's a spot there now with Greeny (Cameron Green) out. And I think just conversations we had after New Zealand with particularly Marnus and Uzi, they hated me up top, to be honest. They wanted me behind them. They just like the...they call it security behind them, in a way. They were pretty strong on me not batting there. So that was a big part of it. And then obviously, I've got a decent record at four," he added.

On his brief opening stint, Smith feels that he would have excelled if given more opportunities.

He said: "It was good fun having a crack at something new, batting up top. I still feel like I could do a job there for sure. It was a pretty small sample size. But I've done pretty well at four for several years now. I feel like it's probably where I can have my best input for this team at the moment."

After replacing retired David Warner as Khawaja's opening partner, Smith scored 171 runs at an average of 28.50 in four Tests. His numbers were not that bad as no opener averaged more than 32 after four Tests.

"Honestly, I'm not that fussed. I said it when I took that job, I'm not really fussed about where I bat. The conversations I had with the other guys, they didn't like it at all. They wanted some security, I suppose, behind them, where I've done really well for several years, and I can understand that as well. So it is what it is and I'm not going to be opening this summer. That's it," Smith said.

The 35-year-old believes Nic Maddison, along with Cameron Bancroft and others, may fill the vacuum left by Warner's departure.

"There's a few really good candidates, guys, that have done really well the last few years. (Cameron) Bancroft and the usual suspects that have been talked about. Maddo I think is also another really good candidate. He's had a good couple of years. If you're looking for someone similar to a Davey replacement, he gets after the ball and can score really quickly," Smith said.

"So he's someone who probably hasn't been spoken about a great deal from all you guys in the last little bit, but I think he's someone that could definitely play test cricket and have a similar impact to what Davey sort of had at the top, the way he plays. So plenty of options. We'll wait and see," he added.

The next Test assignment for Steve Smith and Australia will be the five-Test series Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 against India at home.

(IANS inputs)