Captain runs the team - Smith

Michael Clarke's heir apparent Steven Smith has deflected Shane Warne's criticism of the Australia coach Darren Lehmann, saying that the national captain is in control of the team and denying that Lehmann had orchestrated a final day declaration during the Boxing Day Test against India.

Australia's World Cup campaign was interrupted on Saturday by heavy rain that forced the abandonment of their match against Bangladesh, and as they waited, Warne delivered a pointed critique of Lehmann during an in-depth radio interview with the former legspinner and commentator Kerry O'Keeffe.

Smith brushed off Warne's contention that Australian cricket had to decide whether the coach or the captain was in charge of the team, stating that he had been allowed control over on-field decisions during his time substituting for an injured Clarke during the Border-Gavaskar series.

"It's exclusively up to the captain what happens out there," Smith said. "Your breaks in play and stuff throughout Test matches, he comes and gives a bit of what he thinks we can do in the next session but the captain is the one who runs the ship."

Speaking specifically about the final morning of the Boxing Day Test, when television cameras pictured Lehmann apparently waving the batsmen in himself from the boundary line, Smith clarified that the coach only did so after the players in the middle had failed to see his gesticulations from the team viewing area.

"I think Boof was sitting on the sideline where he tends to sit here and there to watch the cricket and I was up the top actually trying to call the guys in but they couldn't see me," Smith said. "He sort of just said 'look up there, he's calling them in'. They showed him on the TV actually doing it, but I was up the top doing it. Yeah it was me [who declared].

"Everyone who was playing that Test match knew what was going on, knew that I'd made that declaration. I think Boof has done a terrific job around the group as coach, he's done an outstanding job getting all the players together. We're in a good place."

How good a place the team is in is becoming less clear due to their extended break between games. By the time Clarke walks out for the toss with New Zealand's captain Brendan McCullum in Auckland, it will have been two weeks since Australia's opening day hiding of England in Melbourne. Smith felt the break was useful towards the end of the longest summer many can remember.

"I think we'll be fine," he said. "We've been playing a lot of cricket, so a day off is not the worst thing. I think we've prepared well throughout the tournament and we've got a few games of training before that game there, so we'll be fine. We've played a lot of cricket recently and we're in a good place.

"We've got a few days of preparation there in New Zealand before the game next Saturday, plenty of time, we'll see what the coaching staff has for us when we get over there. [New Zealand] are a tough opposition and they're playing some very good cricket in their own backyard. We've got to be on top of our game to beat them.

"The wickets are probably a little bit slower than what we are used to here. Hopefully the nets replicate what we're going to get out in the middle and we can get used to it that way. We'll have a chance to see the wicket when we get over there and we can prepare accordingly."