Usman Khawaja, 37, “always loved” Steve Smith at No.4, where he has scored most of his runs – 5966 at 61.51 with 22 of his 32 centuries.

“I know Steve Smith can score runs at one, two, three, four, five or six, but the man averages 60 at four, so my preference has always been Smudge [Smith] at four,” Khawaja said during a recent Cricket Australia content capture day.

“I love seeing him come in at No. 4 … you get two wickets, and who do you get walking in? The best batsman in the world. When you put him up to open, I feel like you’re kind of giving them a chance to get at him early.”

Hayden believes moving Smith to a “completely different position” is “crazy”.

“The role of an opening batsman compared to a middle-order batsman is very different,” Hayden said in India last week. “And it didn’t take long to discover that when you get into challenging conditions – like they faced in the first series outside of Australia, which was in New Zealand – that opening the batting is very difficult.”

Smith said he was “comfortable” batting anywhere.

“We’ll see what that looks like … whether they want me to continue [opening the batting] or go back to three or four. We’ll wait and see,” Smith said at the recent Cricket Australia content capture. “I’m pretty easy batting anywhere.”