Steve Smith has cast doubt on his participation in the Ashes 2027, admitting he is unsure whether he will still be part of Australia’s Test plans when the series gets underway in England.
The veteran batter continues to assess his Test future one series at a time. However, the 37-year-old is yet to decide whether he will be part of Australia’s tour of England next summer.
Australia are set for a busy Test match assignment, which includes the away series in South Africa, India and England.
Currently, Australia will be facing the WTC 2025 champions South Africa in test format starting in October. The three-match contest will take him back to the country in Test cricket for the first time since the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, although Smith is keen to draw a line under that episode.
As of now, Australia and South Africa are in the first and second spots of the WTC 2025-27 points table.
Speaking in an interview, Steve Smith said, “I don’t even know if I’ll be there yet. I’m in 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 me, it’s just another series,” Smith said. “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 it should be a cracker of a series.”
While his Test future remains uncertain, Steve Smith has no intention of stepping away from the game altogether. He will be continuing T20 opportunities, with representing Australia at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics one of his often-stated ambitions.
“Right now probably it’s just the Olympics to try to be a part of that,” Smith said. “One of the reasons why I wanted to play with Amsterdam (at the European T20 Premier League) was just to continue playing as much T20 cricket as I can.”Steve Smith has been particularly averse to putting a timeline on his playing career, saying his enjoyment of the game remains a major factor.
“I still like to think I could play T20 cricket for a while. 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.”Steve Smith also remains confident in his batting despite the increasing challenges presented by modern Test conditions. He averages 49.4 over in the last two years while pushing his Test century to 37.
“I feel like I’m batting really nicely,” said Smith. “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,” concluded Steve Smith.
The three-match test series between Australia and South Africa will begin on October 09 at KingsmeadDurban.