Australia’s Steve Smith plots return to T20I squad and LA 2028 via England ODI series

Sydney, Aug 21 (IANS) Australia’s senior batter and red-ball expert Steve Smith has not given up on making it back to the T20 side and is hoping to use upcoming international tournaments to play in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 where the sport is expected to return to the Games. Smith is looking forward to returning to international cricket against England next month and is keen to make it to the T20 side and play a part in the country’s push for an Olympic medal in 2028.

Smith suffered a setback to his long-term plans when he was overlooked for this year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, but the 35-year-old has since made a strong impact in the shortest format with some excellent performances in franchise cricket in the recently completed Major League Cricket tournament in the USA.

The right-handed batter will continue to play in Australia’s domestic T20 competition – the Big Bash – and has earmarked a return to the Indian Premier League in the future to continue his affiliation with franchise cricket around the world.

Though he is not getting any younger with each passing day, Smith thinks he might still be around in four years when cricket makes its first appearance at the Summer Olympics since 1900 when a T20 competition will be held at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

“I could still be playing T20 cricket in four years, so you never know,” Smith was quoted as saying icc-cricket on Wednesday. “It’s a format I can see myself playing probably for a lot longer than some of the others, especially with the franchise stuff around the world. I’ve signed on here (Australia Big Bash side Sydney Sixers) for three years so it’s only another year after that. It would be cool to be part of an Olympics.”

Smith will return to national duties in next month’s white-ball tour of the United Kingdom, with the experienced batter overlooked for the T20I portion of the series and only named in the squad for the five-match ODI series against England.

While the white-ball matches against England will be crucial to Smith’s endeavour to return to playing all three formats, it’s the five-match Test series against India on home soil over the new year that remains the biggest priority for the Australian batter and his international teammates.

The series against India will be played across five Test matches for the first time in more than 30 years and Smith can’t wait for Rohit Sharma’s side to visit Australian shores.

“You can’t really hide in a five-Test series like you probably can in a two-match series for instance,” Smith said. “If someone gets the wood on you, it can be hard coming back from that. It’s going to be a wonderful series.

“We are probably the two best teams at the moment in Test cricket. We played the World Test Championship final last year and beat them there. They’ve been great out here the last couple of times, they’ve played really good cricket, hopefully, we can turn the tables. It’s been 10 years since we last won the Border-Gavaskar trophy so need to do that this year.”

Smith is hoping that a good performance against India will impress the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises and gain a footing in the white-ball cricket.

–IANS

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