Former Australia captain Steve Smith.

Image: AFP

Australia's coach Andrew McDonald has confirmed that Steve Smith will bat on the final day of the second Test at St George’s Park.

The Aussies are 156/4 in their second innings, still trailing by 170 runs, with Travis Head (87*) and nightwatchman Scott Boland (2*) at the crease.

Smith was Australia’s top-scorer with 28 in their nightmare first innings of just 99. But the former captain has been struggling with neck stiffness since, requiring medical treatment both on the field and in the dressing room.

He therefore did not come out to bat at No. 4 in Australia’s second innings, with Matt Renshaw being pushed up instead. McDonald stated this was a plan to give Smith more time to recover.

"We felt it was best to hopefully get the batting unit through to tomorrow, and then hopefully he's better placed," McDonald said. "We've seen the physio working on him, so he'll bat tomorrow.

"It's not something that will rule him out of the innings, but it was just a little bit more time than we expected on the back of the first innings. Sometimes he changes his technique when he's fully fit too, but he was limited in what he could do."

The Australian batting line-up has come under intense scrutiny after losing 13 wickets on Day 4. The spotlight is specifically on senior batter Marnus Labuschagne and all-rounder Beau Webster, with former Australian legends calling for them to be dropped.

McDonald, however, stressed that he was not going to "hang anyone out to dry". He was equally adamant that he would not discuss selection changes midway through an ongoing Test.

"It's only a week ago that we were a really, really good team," McDonald said. "We're sitting here right now and we're starting to defend a team that's performed exceptionally well.

"You'll be looking for a grab-and-talk about the negatives and what should happen and what should move. This team's been a really consistent team over a long period of time, so I'm not going to sit here and hang anyone out to dry.

"It's disappointing, but as I said, those players that sit in that room are still the same players that performed exceptionally well last week. I have great belief and trust that the skill sets in that room, in particular tomorrow, can go out there and potentially turn this one around.

"If that doesn't unfold, then we move into Cape Town, we reload, and we go again. A great strength of this group is that on significant setbacks—and I'd say this is a significant setback in terms of the way that we play—we've been able to respond."