Steve Smith says he is no guarantee to play in next year’s Ashes series in England, revealing he is focusing on playing T20 cricket to give himself the best chance of playing at the LA 2028 Olympics.
Smith has dominated the past two Ashes series in England — in 2019 he scored 774 runs at an average of 110.67 and he scored 373 runs in 2023 including a century at Lord’s.
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The 37-year-old remains a key player in Australia’s battling line-up and can enhance his legacy in series against South Africa, New Zealand, India and England, and the 150th anniversary Test, all in the next 12 months.
But in an interview with The Telegraph, Smith said he is no certainly to pull on the pads in England next year, suggesting he is not far away from retiring from Test cricket.
“I don’t even know if I’ll be there yet,” he said.
“I’m kind of a series-by-series proposition, as I’ve been for a while, and that’s still a fair way away for me right now. So, yeah, I’d love to win one there or to have won one there, but you wait and see if that comes to fruition.”
Smith has dominated Ashes series, scoring seven centuries in England, but he is still chasing elusive away series wins in England and India.
He has scored 10,920 runs at an average of 56 across 125 Test matches including 37 centuries, the second most by an Australian behind only Ricky Ponting.
Australia will play 18 Test matches in the next year in an unprecedented schedule that could get even more challenging if the Aussies qualify for the World Test Championship final.
It would be a disastrous scenario for Australia’s XI if Smith was to pull the pin in on his Test career before then, given Marnus Labuschagne’s dire run of form and a lack of obvious candidates to blood in Australia’s top six.
While motivated by winning series in India and England, a major priority for Smith is to play regular T20 cricket around the world to put himself in the frame to be selected to represent Australia at the 2028 Olympics where men’s and women’s T20 tournament will be played.
Smith last played a T20 international for Australia in February 2024.
“Right now probably it’s just the Olympics to try to be a part of that,” said Smith, who is playing for the Amsterdam Flames, a franchise co-owned by Steve Waugh in the European T20 league.
“One of the reasons why I wanted to play with Amsterdam here was just to continue playing as much T20 cricket as I can.
“I was keen immediately to come and play in a new market and, hopefully, share some experiences with the local players and associate players: share a dressing room with them and try to impart some of my knowledge on to them. It’s been really good.”
Smith hasn’t played in the Indian Premier League in recent years but is contracted to the Sydney Sixers and plays for the Washington Freedom in the USA’s Major League Cricket and Sialkot Stallionz in the Pakistan Super League.
“I still like to think I could play T20 cricket for a while,” he said.
“What’s next for me when I finish? I’m not sure, but yeah, hopefully a bit more time left playing.
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“I’ve achieved a lot in the game. It’s been a great ride for the last 15 years or thereabouts. I’ve had a lot of fun. I’m still enjoying it, so I don’t have an end date, we’ll wait and see. But it’s been a good ride.”
“I feel like I’m batting really nicely,” Smith said.
“I’ve found different ways to go about things on these tricky surfaces and still be able to score runs.
“So trying to contribute as well as I can for the team, score runs, take catches, help out in leadership areas where I need to – it’s been a good, fun couple of years.”
The veteran batter also referenced the difficulty of scoring runs on increasingly “spicy” pitches against wobble seam bowling that produces some “unplayable” deliveries.
Smith will play in the three-Test series in South Africa next month in Australia’s first Test series there since the sandpaper scandal.
