Former Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting has said that Steve Smith’s numbers are better than anyone else’s and if the team suffers any injury setback during their T20 World Cup campaign, Smith might be called up to replace him in the squad, after not having found a place for the marquee event.
Smith enjoyed a stellar Big Bash League, piling up 299 runs at a brilliant average of 59.8 from six games, including a hundred, after also notching two fifties and a century during Australia’s home Ashes series.
Smith has not featured in T20Is since early 2024 but, unlike in ODIs, hasn’t retired from the format, with his main ambition being to feature at the LA Olympics in 2028, when he will be 39.
“His numbers stack up better than anybody else’s. But when
you have been out and the side has some success and Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh are the incumbents, it is tough to push one of those two guys out of an opening slot,” Ponting said while speaking to The West Australian.
And poor Steve has probably been pigeonholed as an opening batter only in T20s, which has held him back a little bit in the last few years as far as selection is concerned,” Ponting added.
The selectors drafted in extra batting cover for the three-match series in Pakistan ahead of the T20 World Cup, but Smith didn’t receive a late call-up. Australia have already announced their provisional World Cup team and, while changes are permitted until Saturday, January 31, only injuries are expected to force a rethink, with Marsh and Head locked in at the top and the team riding strong T20 form.
“It is a great problem to have, isn’t it? He is playing incredibly well, as he has done in the BBL for the last couple of years, in a position that we have got really good coverage in,” chief selector George Bailey had said.
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