Smith hopes rain stays away from ‘quarter-final’

This is perhaps the most testing phase of Steven Smith’s tenure as Australian captain yet. A few months back, he led a young side rather impressively on a tough tour of India and even managed to win a rare Test in the country.

Now, he is in charge of Australia’s ICC Champions Trophy 2017 campaign that’s been hit hard by rain. But leaders, particularly Australians, are judged by the number of major trophies they win and Smith insisted on the eve of the last Group A game, against England at Edgbaston on Saturday, that the players had their focus right.

“I hope so,” he said when asked if such must-win situations get the best out of Australia. “Obviously, a must-win match for us. It usually does bring out the best of the Australia cricket team in big tournaments. I think for us it's just about treating it as a quarter-final and coming out and playing the way that we know that we're capable of playing. That usually brings out the best in us.”

Smith said the occasion was even more exciting as it was against England, which he praised for transforming its limited-overs cricket. “I guess there's always been a big rivalry with England. So the guys are incredibly excited about tomorrow,” he said. “Looks like the forecast has cleared up a little bit too, so hopefully, we can get through our first game of this tournament and have some success.

“I think England have come a long way. I think they're playing some very good cricket, particularly here at home. They've got some dangerous players that we're going to have to keep quiet. We're certainly going to have to be at our best tomorrow if we're going to beat them.”

Smith will lead Australia against England later this year in a much more intense format of the rivalry – the Ashes series. Mitchell Starc had earlier in the week said Australia would want to open some old wounds on Saturday ahead of the Ashes, but his captain wasn’t looking that far ahead. “I hadn't really thought of it that way,” said Smith. “It's a completely different format. Yeah, it's a big tournament and a quarter-final essentially. Obviously, England are through to the next round already. So hopefully, they don't turn up and play the game that they're capable of playing, and let us into the game. Having said that, I don't think they'll do that playing against Australia. But, yeah, we're excited about tomorrow, and that's our sole focus at the moment.

“I said at the start before we got here, this is an ICC tournament. It only comes around every four years, the Champions Trophy, and it's the second biggest tournament after the World Cup. So we've got to be focused on that. It's a very sort of cutthroat tournament with only three pool matches. So you've got to be switched on for each and every one of those, albeit we're only going to be getting through one potentially. Yeah, I made sure that coming over here, we're completely focused on this tournament and getting the job done at hand.”