Former Australian captain Ian Chappell had accused Steve Smith of undermining his captain Tim Paine during the second Test against Pakistan.

The incident he pulled up as evidence was of Smith patrolling the field and calling fielding changes in opposition to his captain's orders.

“I tell you what I don’t like to see, Steve Smith is moving a few fieldsmen around,” Chappell said on Macquarie Sports Radio. “He did have a chat with Tim Paine, trying to talk Tim Paine into moving a fielder on the off-side, but I’m not sure Tim Paine moved him as far as Steve Smith wanted. Steve Smith started moving him, I hate to see that. England used to do it a bit, blokes other than the captain and I always felt it was white-anting the captain."

Steve Smith vehemently rejected the idea that he was undermining Paine.

"I only try and help Tim as much as I can," Smith said.

He added, "He's (Tim Paine) doing a terrific job, but I give him suggestions and things like that. I only want the team to do well. I'm certainly not undermining him,"

Australia clobbered Pakistan in the two-match series, but Smith had very little to do during it, as Marnus Labuschagne, Joe Burns, and David Warner dominated the run charts. Smith only managed scores of 4 and 36 in the series.