One of the modern-day greats of the game, Steve Smith has come to the public for the first time since his return to international cricket and have spoken on his intentions of captaining the national side again. He stated that he is ready for another captaincy stint if he is bestowed upon the role again. However Australian head coach Justin Langer has clearly said that both the Test and the limited-overs side is in good hands and there is no captaincy position available in the near future.
“We have two very good captains and two important competitions coming up – an Ashes and a T20 World Cup. Our future looks good,” Langer was quoted as saying by ABC. “Despite the media chatter there is no captaincy position available,” he further added.
Smith who is one of the finest batsmen of the modern era was suspended from international cricket for a year and from leadership roles for two years due to his involvement in the sandpaper gate scandal which rocked the cricketing world in Cape Town back in March 2018.
He was among the leadership group along with David Warner who instructed Cameron Bancroft to apply sandpaper on the ball to alter the condition of the ball. Following his confession, Smith along with Warner and Bancroft was sent back home and was subsequently suspended from international cricket. Tim Paine has taken over the captaincy duties in Test cricket and has done a good job so far despite losing a few series here and there.
On Monday Smith finally made a comment on his captaincy ambitions when asked about the same during his conversation with News Corp.
“I guess now I’ve got to a point where if the opportunity did come up again I would be keen. If it was what Cricket Australia wanted and it was what was best for the team at the time, it’s certainly something I would be interested in,” Smith said.