Steve Smith has made no commitment to the next Ashes campaign, with the veteran batter continuing to assess his Test future one series at a time. Smith, 37, is yet to decide whether he will be part of Australia’s tour of England next summer, despite the prospect of chasing a first Ashes series win in England.
“I don’t even know if I’ll be there yet,” Smith said in a interview with The Telegraph. “I’m in 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. I’d love to win one there or to have won one there, but you wait and see if that comes to fruition.”
Australia are building up to a challenging run of Test match assignments, which includes away series in South Africa, India and England. Smith’s attention, for now, is on Australia’s upcoming series against the current holders of the World Test Championship. The three-Test contest will take him back to the country in Test cricket for the first time since the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, although Smith is keen to draw a line under that episode.
“For me, it’s just another series,” Smith said. “All that happened a long time ago, and we’ve played a lot of cricket and have been back to South Africa since then for one-dayers. They’re a good side at the moment, obviously beat us in the World Test Championship final. They have a really good pace attack as well, so should be a cracker of a series.”
While his Test future remains open-ended, Smith has no intention of stepping away from the game altogether. He continues to pursue T20 opportunities, with representing Australia at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics one of his often-stated ambitions. “Right now probably it’s just the Olympics to try to be a part of that,” Smith said.
“One of the reasons why I wanted to play with Amsterdam [at the European T20 Premier League] was just to continue playing as much T20 cricket as I can.”
Smith has similarly avoided putting a timeline on his playing career, saying his enjoyment of the game remains a major factor. “I still like to think I could play T20 cricket for a while. What’s next for me when I finish? I’m not sure, but yeah, hopefully a bit more time left playing.
“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.”
Smith also remains confident in his batting despite the increasing challenges presented by modern Test conditions, particularly the amount of movement available to seamers. He averages 49.4 over the last two years while pushing his Test century count to 37. “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.”