Smith to stay at No. 3 for Adelaide

Australia captain Steven Smith will stay at No. 3 in the batting order in the absence of the injured Usman Khawaja, opening up a spot in the middle order for the day-night match in Adelaide.

The squad for Adelaide will be named on Wednesday, and Smith's pronouncement makes it likely that the selectors will opt for a middle-order option. While Shaun Marsh is favourite for the role, George Bailey is among the leading run-makers in the Sheffield Shield this summer and would add useful knowhow to a young team, while Glenn Maxwell is highly regarded if enigmatic, and made 98 and 38 in the Sheffield Shield match between Victoria and Western Australia at the MCG.

"It depends who comes in but I think I'll probably bump myself up to No. 3 with Usman being out," Smith said. "I'll keep that spot warm for him until he comes back."

Australia have other selection queries following the retirement of Mitchell Johnson, the indifferent form of Mitchell Marsh, and the heavy workloads endured by Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in Perth. James Pattinson, James Faulkner and Moises Henriques have all been mentioned as possible inclusions.

Smith stated his dissatisfaction with the Kookaburra balls used in this match, with an extraordinary 11 replacement balls required across the Test outside the usual allocation. However he expressed optimism that the pink ball would hold up well in Adelaide under conditions carefully concocted to support it.

"It's just up to the powers above me to sort that out with Kookaburra," Smith said of the red ball. "It was a little bit disappointing the way we had to change so many balls throughout this Test match. I think it wastes a lot of time and it's always different as a batter or a bowler to change the ball continually, to get in a rhythm. So hopefully they can resolve those issues.

"We played the Shield game with the pink ball in Adelaide a couple of weeks ago and the ball stayed together pretty well. I think there was eight millimetres of grass on that wicket and it's likely to be a pretty similar wicket for the Test match next week. Hopefully saying that the ball stays in shape the same way it did a couple of weeks ago."

As for the WACA pitch, which hosted the fourth highest scoring Test ever played in Australia, Smith said he was disappointed by its lack of life, but equally had no intention of handing too straightforward a chase to New Zealand on the final afternoon. The final target of 321 in 48 overs was never realistic, even before rain arrived.

"It would have been nice to get about 360 off about 65-70 overs," he said. "It was obviously pretty hard, I thought they bowled really well. As we saw there at the back end, the wicket was still extremely good so I didn't want to give them much of a sniff. The two guys out there at the end, we've struggled to get them out this Test match. Well, Kane in both Test matches.

"Traditionally the wicket out here has had a lot more pace and bounce. Going into the game that's what the groundsman indicated it was likely to be like. It didn't turn out that way unfortunately. I was a bit disappointed with the way the wicket played. It was really tough to take wickets. So I don't think there was much more we could do."