Mitchell Johnson: Opening is Steve Smith’s T20 spot - but is there room for him in Australia’s World Cup side?

‘That was outrageous’: Steve Smith departs after entertaining cameo as opener.

When I saw this headline on Friday night I immediately turned on the second Twenty20 match against New Zealand and checked the score as I thought Smith must have gone off.

Looks like the headline got me — it wasn’t to be. Eleven off seven deliveries followed by four off three balls in game three.

As they experiment again, opening the batting is probably the only spot Smith can bat in this T20 set-up.

With three changes for this game, it seems the selectors are still really trying to figure out their best T20 squad for the looming World Cup in June.

We all know what Smith has done in the past and what he is capable of. Even when he moved up to open in Test cricket during the summer, he showed us all why he is one of the best batsmen Australia has ever produced.

But it’s his T20 form that is now in serious question. Where can he fit in?

I wonder if international T20 cricket is something he really wants to play. Of course, he will most likely play in a few different leagues around the world when his Test career is over and so maybe there is a dangling carrot in that he wants to perform at international level and at a World Cup to boost his chances of playing in leagues where he can earn himself big pay cheques.

He needs to bat as opener, in my opinion. That gives him time to get himself in and his eye in and once that happens he can hit it all over the park.

And with Australia’s explosive batting attack, that could be a good fit for Smith, but Australia need to see him score and do that job consistently before he could be considered for the World Cup.

Tim David showed his hitting power in the first game and it was simple, effective and probably took New Zealand by surprise.

Adam Milne’s over was the kicker. Lockie Ferguson was good — going for eight runs but including a six, but Milne’s 19th over left Australia a sniff and the rest is history.

The Aussies did a good job in the second T20 match having made a few changes, but after only making 174, there may have been a few nerves before that bowling innings.

New Zealand pitches are generally good to bat on in — especially in the short form — and the grounds are postage stamp-sized.

Trust me, I found out how small they are when I was hit out of the stadium by Jacob Oram in my first one-day international.

The Aussie bowlers learnt from the first match and never really gave New Zealand a chance. It always helps when your main spinner in Adam Zampa is able to get something out of the surface and vary his pace nicely, while the experienced Hazlewood kept things tight although in game 1 a few more Yorkers were probably needed.

It has been a good use of players so far this series by Australia, with a good mix of youth and experience.

Sometimes it can be hard as a player in these scenarios when the team is trying out a few different and new combinations.

Looking from the outside you might think they should just play their best 11, but this is about finding the right combinations and trying them out too.

Australia have done that, plus they have won the series, which they have done comfortably in the end against a strong New Zealand side on home soil.

Root cause

It seems Bazball is at it again.

Joe Root has been the talk of the cricket world with what would seem a reckless shot choice.

His captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum have defended it — as you would expect. McCullum also defended the way Root has been going about it in this new regime.

Root is their Smith or Marnus Labuschagne. He is a more correct player. Someone who needs to get himself in, watch the ball and leave it when required.

When I bowled at him I would be thinking that I’m a chance early on if I can get him to play a big shot, a big cover drive.

Same goes for Virat Kohli. As a bowler you feel your best chance is early with players of that sort of calibre — the traditional Test batters with proper defences and game plans that work to their strengths.

Alastair Cook is another example. While many might have thought of him as boring, I always knew that he was going to put a price on his wicket and I wasn’t going to get him out playing a ramp shot.

I said this during the Ashes series: It’s not a new thing to be aggressive as a batting unit. If England find the right balance of when to be aggressive and take on an attack and when to defend, they will be in a better place.

Again, it’s what I saw playing at first-class level and what I saw watching the Aussies in the 1990s and 2000s.

Joe Root has been one of the best for a very long time. I’m not sure he needs to play Bazball, especially when they have plenty of out-and-out attacking players in the team.

But hey, why would you listen to an Aussie?