Steve Smith dreams of returning to international cricket and playing in Olympics 2028: Australia opener Steve Smith is excited to return to international cricket against England next month and wants to contribute to a 2028 Olympic medal.
Veteran batsman Steve Smith has still not given up hope that he can return to Australia’s T20 team and be a part of cricket’s return to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Smith’s long-term plans took a blow when he was not included in Australia’s squad for the recent ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, but the 35-year-old has since made an impact in the shortest format with his impressive performances in franchise cricket, especially in the recently concluded Major League Cricket tournament in the USA.
The right-handed batsman will play in Australia’s domestic T20 competition Big Bash and plans to return to the Indian Premier League in the future to continue his association with franchise cricket around the world.
Smith still believes he will feature at cricket’s first Summer Olympics since 1900 four years from now, when the 2028 Games are held in Los Angeles as a T20 competition.
“I could still be playing T20 cricket in four years, so you never know,” Smith said. “It’s a format I can see myself playing probably for a lot longer than some of the others, especially with the franchise stuff around the world. I’ve signed on here (Australia Big Bash side Sydney Sixers) for three years so it’s only another year after that. It would be cool to be part of an Olympics.”
Steve Smith, an experienced batsman who was left out of the T20I portion of the series and only included in the squad for the five-match ODI series against England, will make his comeback to Australia service on the white-ball tour of the United Kingdom next month.
While the white-ball matches against the old rival will be crucial for Smith in his quest to play all three formats, the five-match Test series against India on home soil in the new year remains the biggest priority for the Australian batsman and his international teammates.
Australia have not won a Test series against India on home soil since the beginning of 2015 and this time the battle for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be crucial for their hopes of qualifying for next year’s ICC World Test Championship Final at Lord’s.
The series against India will be played over five Tests for the first time in over 30 years and Smith is eagerly looking forward to Rohit Sharma’s side’s tour of Australia.
“You can’t really hide in a five-Test series like you probably can in a two-match series for instance,” Smith said. “If someone gets the wood on you, it can be hard coming back from that. It’s going to be a wonderful series.
“We are probably the two best teams at the moment in Test cricket. We played the World Test Championship final last year and beat them there. They’ve been great out here the last couple of times, they’ve played really good cricket, hopefully we can turn the tables. It’s been 10 years since we last won the Border-Gavaskar trophy so need to do that this year.”
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Source: ICC
