‘He sat out the last couple and hopefully that’s been a bit of a wake-up call for him,’ Smith told cricket.com.au.

‘We know what we want from him, it’s a bit more consistency and that’s what the selectors have told him. He gets an opportunity and hopefully he’ll make the most of that.

‘I had a word to him the other day just about clearing his mind and going out there and just playing good cricket shots. I think we’ve seen when Maxi is at his best he’s actually not thinking too much, so it was just reinforcing those messages.

‘I watched him bat pretty closely in the nets yesterday (Saturday) and I thought he played particularly well, especially against the fast bowlers. So hopefully he’s continuing to learn and hopefully he’ll get amongst the runs in the next couple of games.’

To the contrary Mitchell Starc had an impressive start to the tournament, and was given time to rest after only returning from a long-term injury for the start of the tournament. Starc has played two of Australia’s four games so far. He took two wickets at an economy rate of 4.11 against West Indies in Guyana and three wickets at 4.30 against South Africa at St Kitts.

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