Sydney, Jan 3 (IANS) Australian stand-in captain Steve Smith is ready to relinquish captaincy to a younger candidate in the absence of captain Pat Cummins if that is what the selectors wish to do. With Usman Khawaja hanging up his cricket boots on Sunday after the Sydney Test, Nathan Lyon has already been ruled out due to injury. Smith will now be the oldest player in the Australian XI, side by side with Scott Boland.

When asked about possibly being involved in the 2027 Ashes series in England, Smith indicated that he was uncertain of that possibility; however, he was happy to enjoy his cricket at this moment and was only focused on the current series.

“I’ve said it for a while, I’m taking it day-by-day, series-by-series, and we’ll see where things land,” said Smith. “I feel like I’m doing alright at the moment, I’m enjoying it, I’m contributing, and having fun. So there’s no real end date for me.

“I think with obviously Usman dropping off, he’s one of our experienced players, so it probably wouldn’t be ideal if him and I went out this week, for instance,” he added. “So no, I want to keep playing.”

While Smith has been the captain for four of Cummins’ Ashes Tests, he is nonetheless at ease with relinquishing this position to a younger candidate after Khawaja’s retirement if that is what the selectors wish to do. According to Smith, the sport has recently become more entertaining because of increases in positive results for the Australian team.

Following an impressive period of success, the team is poised to compete again for the WTC after gaining some momentum through their recent wins and dropping points against Australia recently. The loss in Melbourne has caused the team to want to win in Sydney prior to their two most difficult series, in South Africa and India, which take place shortly after this series concludes.

“I think we’ve got a really good team,” Smith said in the press conference. “The team we’ve had over the last three or four years, obviously making two World Test Championship finals, different people have stood up at different times. It’s never been one or two people just getting the job done. It’s been shared across and guys have done great jobs throughout and I think that’s what’s made us a really good team.

“So, it’s been good to be a part of and as an older player now, hopefully I can help some of the players coming through and help teach them the game of Test cricket.”

Following dominant wins in Perth and Brisbane, Australia took a 3-1 lead over England in a five-Test series for the Ashes. After winning the third Test in Adelaide by 82 runs to tie up the series, England responded with an impressive win against Australia in Melbourne, their first victory on Australian soil in 15 years. The Melbourne Test ended in less than two days and was won by four wickets.

Although the Ashes were already secured by Australia, there was still a lot of motivation for both teams and the points awarded for the World Test Championship were at stake.

“With the World Test championship, every game is important,” he said.

“Hopefully we can turn it around here, win this series 4-1, and now, more importantly, just win a Test in the World Test championship cycle.”

Smith, who watched Usman Khawaja in the early days of U-17 and U-19 playing for South Wales, said he was an admirer of Khawaja’s batting. Khawaja on Friday called a press conference and made the announcement with his family by his side two days out from the match, ahead of the team’s net session with the Aussies aiming to claim another 12 World Test Championship points and finish the series as 4-1 victors.

“I remember playing against him in a couple of Under-17 versus Under-19 games for New South Wales and watching him bat,” Smith was quoted by ESPNCricinfo as saying. “The way he pulled the ball, I was like, this guy picks length up quicker than anyone I’ve seen. He was pulling balls off the top of the stumps. I feel like throughout his career, he’s been batting his best when he’s been doing that as well. And just his progression over a long period of time has been outstanding.”

Usman Khawaja often refers to himself as one of Australia’s most dropped cricketers, having been dropped from the Test team seven times prior to 2019. However, Steve Smith sees those omissions in the subcontinent during his captaincy as lessons for Khawaja rather than hindrances.

They forced Khawaja to face his weaknesses while playing spin bowling, which ended up changing his game for the better. The change was extreme. Before his great series against Pakistan in Dubai in 2018, Khawaja had a terrible average of 14.62 over 5 Tests played in Asia. But after that series, Khawaja became one of cricket’s best players against spin and was able to score 1490 runs in 13 Tests with a remarkable average of 82.77.

“He’s arguably one of our best players of spin now. So maybe [it was] a blessing in disguise. But the way he’s been able to play over his 15-year career… it’s a credit to him and not too many people get to go out on their own terms,” Steven Smith on Usman Khawaja.

“He hates it, but we dropped him,” Smith said. “I was captain at that stage and we dropped him in the subcontinent. We didn’t think he was playing the spinners as well as he does now. But he got that opportunity to go back and figure out ways to play. Whether he would have done that had he kept playing, I’m not sure. But he went back and found some different methods to defend spin. He was reversing, sweeping, and that’s a mode of defence in a way when you put the field out.

“He’s arguably one of our best players of spin now. So maybe [it was] a blessing in disguise. But the way he’s been able to play over his 15-year career… it’s a credit to him and not too many people get to go out on their own terms.”

–IANS

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