That's Difficult To Say: Australia's Selector On Whether Steve Smith Will Lead Again

Steve Smith might be eligible to become Australia’s captain once again and the murmurs of the same might be doing the rounds in the Australian cricket circles but the selectors are not even thinking about it.

In March this year, Steve Smith’s two-year leadership ban ended. He was stripped of the captaincy and banned from leading Australia for two years over his involvement in the 2018 ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.  He and David Warner received one-year bans from international and most domestic cricket while Cameron Bancroft was banned for nine months.

Apart from the bans, Cricket Australia had also imposed leadership ban on Steve Smith and Warner. Unlike Smith, Warner remains under a career-long leadership ban. But despite the end of ban for Smith, Australia’s selectors are not willing to consider him for the leadership role at present.

Tim Paine has led Australia’s Test side really well and has the full support of the selectors. But with the wicketkeeper-batsman turning 36 before the first Test against India starts on December 17, few players have better credentials to succeed the him than Smith.

However, the selectors have made it clear that the star batsman is not in the picture for the role by naming fast bowler Pat Cummins as the team’s sole vice-captain while announcing the squad on Thursday. Following the squad announcement, Australia’s national selector Trevor Hohns stated that Smith’s name was not even raised in discussions about the leadership roles.

“All I can answer to that one is that discussion hasn’t been had yet,” Hohns told the reporters.

Asked whether 31-year-old Smith might ever be captain again, Hohns refused to give a clear cut picture, saying:

“That’s difficult to say, he will obviously be – probably – a contender but whether we go down that path or not depends on when that arises.

“Tim Paine hasn’t gone yet, put it that way, so we’ll worry about that in due course,” he added.

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