Smith to skip T20 World Cup if needed to be fit for Ashes

SYDNEY, July 3 (Reuters) – Australian striker spearhead Steve Smith hopes to recover from an elbow injury in time for this year’s Twenty20 World Cup, but says he will skip the tournament if necessary to be in top form for the team’s Ashes defense against England at home.

Former captain Smith has been barred from Australia’s limited tour of the West Indies and Bangladesh due to a left elbow injury, with the team set to play five T20s and three one-day internationals in the Caribbean this month, followed by five T20 matches in Bangladesh in August.

The T20 World Cup will be played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from October 17 to November 14, after being displaced from India due to the COVID-19 pandemic there. Read more

“There’s still a little bit of time between now and (the T20 World Cup), and I’m fine at the moment. It’s slow, but I’m fine,” Smith told the Cricket Australia website (cricket. com.au).

“I would love to be in the World Cup for sure, but from my point of view, testing cricket is my main goal: to be fair to the Ashes and try to emulate what I have. done lately The Ashes series in which I participated. “

The 2019 Ashes series in England ended in a 2-2 draw, with the Australians retaining the trophy after shutting out their rivals 4-0 in the final five-game competition at Down Under.

Australia will face Afghanistan in a single test at the end of November before the first of five matches in the Ashes Series begins on December 8 in Brisbane.

Smith, 32, who is ranked second in the list of the world’s best tryout batsmen, has a staggering record with the bat in one of the world’s most prominent cricket series.

He’s reached eight hundred and scored nearly 2,000 points on 14 tests over the past three Ashes.

“I want to put myself in a position where I can have that kind of impact,” Smith said. “If that means not going to the World Cup, then we’ll have to go that route, but hopefully we don’t have to go.

“I’ve made a bit of progress with that in the last few weeks. I started playing batting, only 10 minutes at a time, and basically my path back to the game is building from there.

“The ashes are the main focus from my point of view, (so) I have to be in a position where I can beat for long periods of time, and at the moment I can’t do that, which is boring.”

Report by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; Editing by Hugh Lawson

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