The Australian batter Steven Smith has been eyeing representing Australia at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles with T20 likely to be a format and revealed that he has no retirement plans in mind.
Recently Smith signed a three-year deal with Sydney Sixers in the BBL, indicating that he will be playing professional cricket until 2026-27. But he would need to give a comeback if he needed to be part of Australia’s T20 setup as he eyes the LA Olympics after being omitted for this year’s T20 World Cup.
“I could still be playing T20 cricket in four years, so you never know,” he said. “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 for three years so it’s only another year after that. It would be cool to be part of an Olympics.”
But while speaking about playing in international formats, it remains uncertain for Smith. “I don’t have any plans,” he said. “I’m just enjoying playing at the moment, I’m pretty relaxed and looking forward to this summer.”
Smith will be returning to the ODI in England next month before the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Amid the questions of whether he will remain as Australia’s Test opener, Smith is relishing the prospect of facing India over a five-match series.
With a highly expected Border Gavaskar Trophy which hasn’t been played in in five tests since 1991-92, Australia are aiming to regain the Border Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in ten years, as they lost the series against India in 2014-15 series.
“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 ten years since we last won the Border-Gavaskar trophy so need to do that this year.”
While speaking about his batting position, Smith said, “I’m happy to bat anywhere. Batting at four, I could be in after the first two balls. I’ve been in early on many occasions and faced the new ball.”
Australia has to retain the batting order they had before David Warner’s retirement in January, Smith will be opening against the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Mohammed Siraj.
Smith who is nearing 10000 runs this summer, was elevated up in the order when he revealed his desire to play in the top order. Smith scored 171 runs in four tests at 28.50 including an unbeaten 91 runs against West Indies.
“The conversations I’ve had so far is that we’ll go to England… I’m there for the one-dayers, then make a decision after that,” he said.
“There’s conversations happening in the background. You see some comments that guys like Usman [Khawaja] have said he likes me down at No. 4, think Marnus is of a similar thought pattern. We’ll wait and see. I’m happy to bat anywhere.
“For me, it’s just a position. Batting at four, I could be in after the first two balls. I’ve been in early on many occasions and faced the new ball. For me, it’s kind of just a number. I batted at three for a long period of time as well and we lost wickets inside the first over and I’ll come out and score runs.”
“The only real thing I had to get used to was how quick a turnaround it is when you come off the field and you only have ten minutes, particularly with the amount of mucking around I have in the changing rooms.”
With being named in the Australia ODI squad for the England tour, he is set to feature in international cricket after six months. The first match of the ODI series is set to begin on September 11 at The Ageas Bowl.
