Smith keeps Ashes future uncertain as South Africa awaits

Steve Smith remains uncertain about whether he will be part of Australia’s Ashes campaign in England next summer, with the 37-year-old continuing to take his Test career one series at a time.

Smith, who has played 125 Tests and scored 37 centuries at an average of 54, admitted that even the prospect of finally winning an Ashes series in England is not enough to make him commit to playing that far ahead.

“I don’t even know if I’ll be there yet,” he said while speaking to The Telegraph.

“I’m kind of a series-by-series proposition, as I’ve been for a while, and that’s still a fair way away for me right now. I’d love to win one there or to have won one there, but you wait and see if that comes to fruition.”

For now, Smith’s immediate Test focus is on Australia’s next ICC World Test Championship assignment, with a three-Test series against South Africa approaching.

The series will see Smith return to South Africa in Test cricket for the first time since the infamous 2018 ball-tampering incident, and he is expecting a challenging contest against a side with a formidable pace attack.

“For me, it’s just another series,” Smith insists.

“All that happened a long time ago, and we’ve played a lot of cricket and have been back to South Africa since then for one-dayers.

“They’re a good side at the moment, obviously beat us in the World Test Championship final. They have a really good pace attack as well, so should be a cracker of a series.”

The assignment comes during an increasingly demanding period for Australia, who are at the beginning of a packed Test schedule that will see them play South Africa, New Zealand, and India.

Smith remains one of Australia’s most important batting figures. Over the past two years, he has averaged 49.4 in Tests and remains ranked No.2 in ICC Men’s Test Ranking of batters.

Despite the uncertainty around his Test future, Smith is still enjoying the challenge. He has also been using T20 cricket to keep himself going, with the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles among his remaining ambitions.

“Right now probably it’s just the Olympics to try to be a part of that,” Smith says.

“One of the reasons why I wanted to play with Amsterdam here (at the Eurpoean T20 Premier League) was just to continue playing as much T20 cricket as I can.”

He remains reluctant to put a date on the end of his career.

“I still like to think I could play T20 cricket for a while,” he reflects. “What’s next for me when I finish? I’m not sure, but yeah, hopefully a bit more time left playing.

“I’ve achieved a lot in the game. It’s been a great ride for the last 15 years or thereabouts. I’ve had a lot of fun. I’m still enjoying it, so I don’t have an end date, we’ll wait and see. But it’s been a good ride.”

The veteran remains positive about his batting despite the increasing difficulty of scoring runs in modern Test cricket, particularly with seam movement becoming a greater challenge.

“I feel like I’m batting really nicely,” Smith said.

“I’ve found different ways to go about things on these tricky surfaces and still be able to score runs. So trying to contribute as well as I can for the team, score runs, take catches, help out in leadership areas where I need to. It’s been a good, fun couple of years.”