Melbourne : Australian skipper Steve Smith said that he has no intention to step down from the one-day captaincy despite his recent struggles during the side’s 4-1 defeat in the five-match ODI series against England.
The 28-year-old, who is leading Australia across three formats of the game, was at his menacing best in the Test arena during Australia’s 4-0 Ashes rout of England, amassing 687 runs at an average of 137.4.
However, Smith was exactly opposite in the ODI format, failing to pass half-century in five innings as England’s impressive 50-over side bounced back from Ashes defeat to thrash the hosts in the ODI leg of their tour.
Under Smith, Australia have won just two out of 13 one-day internationals in the past 12 months, but the skipper has quashed any talk of giving up ODI captaincy.
He further stressed that there would be a review of the side’s woeful one-day form while adding that evaluating personnel will be part of that review.
“I’m happy leading these boys at the moment.Unfortunately, I haven’t done as well with the bat in this series as I would have liked. Probably both me and Dave as the senior players, haven’t stepped up,” cricket.com.au quoted Smith as saying.
“We were talking about it just before and that really hurts your team when your two senior players aren’t scoring the runs that they need to be. I’d like to keep taking this team forward and leading the boys and doing the best I can,” he elaborated.
Smith has been rested from the 14-man national squad for the upcoming T20 tri-series against England and New Zealand due to the tight turnaround between it and the Test tour of South Africa.
In his absence, opener David Warner will captain the Twenty20 side in the tri-series, beginning Saturday in Sydney.
Reflecting on the same, Smith said he was hopeful Warner would be fine to carry on uninterrupted despite being the only Australian player to be a part of the international squad in all three formats.
“I hope he’ll be okay. I’m sure if he’s not he’ll have a word and see how he’s going. Obviously, South Africa’s an important series for us, as is the T20 series now. We’ve got to start playing better white-ball cricket as a whole.I’m looking forward to this rest. It’s been a long summer. I haven’t contributed the way I would have liked in this (ODI) series,” Smith concluded. (ANI)