First, he was left out from the Australian squad for the T20 World Cup, despite scoring heavily in the BBL; called in as a cover for injured skipper Mitchell Marsh before the Sri Lanka match, and then was not even picked in the playing XI even once. That is the story of Steve Smith in the last few days.
Steve Smith overlooked for Oman match
As per unconfirmed reports, he was in Adelaide, when the call-up to join Australia came, and he was soon flown to Colombo, and taken to Kandy, before Australia’s fixture vs Sri Lanka. But in all this, sanity did not prevail, as the in-form batter was not included in the XI.
Of course, after the defeat in that match, Aussies were knocked out of the tournament, but had a game left against Oman. There were expectations that Steve Smith would feature in the match, but that did not happen too. Instead Cameron Green was picked once again, who has only scored 24 runs in the World Cup so far.
Why was Smith in the team?
Just for the context, he went on to score 299 runs for Sydney Thunder about a month back, at an average of 60, and a strike-rate of 168. Yes, the Aussies might not care for the Oman match after all, but what the was point of not playing him against Sri Lanka? What was the logic behind calling him as a cover for an injured player, if not to be picked in the XI?
Perhaps, it is for all these stupid calls, Australia crashed out of the tournament in the very first round itself, losing to Zimbabwe as well. Now, the onus is on their management, to communicate with the legend, and let him know about his future in the format, after the team packs their bags, and heads home.
