Australian cricketer Steve Smith has been praised for his performance in the recent Ashes. The player scored 774 runs in just seven innings and was the highest scorer of the Ashes 2019. It didn’t feel that he was playing after a year as he was outstanding with his bat. He is back in the Australian squad but has lost his captaincy. Ricky Ponting thinks that Smith can get back the captaincy.
Smith played only four Test matches in Ashes 2019 as he was ruled out of third Test match because of concussion. In the Test series, he played with the average of more than 100 and helped Australia to retain the away Ashes title for the first time in 18 years.
Ricky Ponting was of the view that after seeing Smith’s performance Australia can reconsider the player as a captain. He is ready to accept him to be the captain of Australia if the public likes it.
“Steve Smith – I think he will captain again. I don’t know what the Australian public might think about that,” Ponting said at an event at Australia House in London.
“So to me that seems like Cricket Australia has left the gate open … so if Cricket Australia thinks it’s OK then I’m happy with [it,]” Ponting added.
After the completion of the one-year suspension period, Smith is now also facing one-more year captaincy suspension. He will be available for the captaincy after March 2020.
Steve Smith knows his role: Ricky Ponting
Smith and David Warner were banned for one year from international cricket after the sandpaper ball-tampering scandal in March 2018, while Cameron Bancroft was given a nine-month ban. It was the dark phase for Smith in his career but it feels like that his contribution in Ashes 2019 has washed all of it. Ricky Ponting opines that Smith knows his place in the team and believes that he might be the future captain.
“I think he knows his role now. But once that ban is lifted, I don’t think it will be too long until he’s captain again,” Ponting said.
The accidental captain Tim Paine has given a satisfactory performance as the skipper. He was a failure in taking DRS as because of it they lost the third match in Headingly. His share in runs is also not remarkable. Cricket Australia (CA) will also reconsider him to be the future captain.