Steven Smith
Steven Smith (Image Credit: Twitter)

Former Australia and Rajasthan Royals skipper Steve Smith has revealed that he played the 14th season of the Indian Premier League with an elbow injury that aggravated as the tournament progressed.

Picked by the Delhi Capitals at a base price of Rs 2 Crore in the IPL 2021 auction, Steve Smith had another underwhelming outing in the cash-rich league this year.

In 6 matches, Steve Smith managed just 104 runs at an average of 26 and a poor strike rate of 111.82.

Smith, who recently pulled out from the West Indian tour where Australia is scheduled to play 3 ODIs and 5 T20Is, revealed that he took medication every time he went out to bat in IPL 2021 but the injury got worse as the season progressed.

‘’I still wasn’t quite 100 percent [during the IPL], it was still bothering me a bit, and I was playing over there medicated taking some painkillers and anti-inflammatories every time I batted,” Steve Smith told cricket.com.au.

“It got to a point where it wasn’t really improving much, and it probably got a little bit worse while I was over there,” Smith added.

Steve Smith
Steve Smith smashed a couple of 61-ball 100s against India last year [Image-AP]
Steve Smith further added that while he would love to be a part of the T20 World Cup but for him, the Ashes remains the first priority. And, he is even ready to pull out of the quadrennial event in order to be fully fit for the Test series against England later this year.

”There’s still a bit of time between now and [the T20 World Cup], and I’m tracking okay at the moment it’s slow, but I’m going okay,” he said.

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”I’d love to be part of the World Cup, for sure, but from my point of view, Test cricket, that’s my main goal to be right for the Ashes and try to emulate what I’ve done in the last few Ashes series I’ve been involved in,” Smith said.

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