Steve Smith's Future: One Series at a Time
Steve Smith has spent a career dealing in certainties – long occupations at the crease, remorseless run-scoring, series-defining innings. His future, though, is now very much a ball-by-ball proposition.
The 37-year-old has stopped short of committing to one last crack at an Ashes series in England, refusing to lock himself into the 2025 tour despite the lure of a first outright series win there.
“I don't even know if I’ll be there yet,” Smith told The Telegraph, laying bare a mindset that has shifted from long-term planning to short-term appraisal. “I'm in kind of a series-by-series proposition, as I’ve been for a while, and that’s still a fair way away for me right now. I’d love to win one there or to have won one there, but you wait and see if that comes to fruition.”
For a player who has dominated Ashes contests like few others, it is a striking admission. The carrot is obvious: Australia have not won a Test series in England since 2001. Smith, the defining batting figure of the modern rivalry, has done just about everything else.
One series at a time
Australia’s calendar offers little breathing space. A demanding stretch of Test cricket looms: tours of South Africa, India and then, possibly with Smith in tow, England.
For now, his gaze is fixed firmly on the first of those assignments, a three-Test showdown against the reigning World Test Championship holders. The trip will return him to South Africa in Test whites for the first time since the 2018 ball-tampering scandal – a backdrop that would dominate most careers.
Smith is determined not to let it dominate this one.
“For me, it’s just another series,” he said. “All that happened a long time ago, and we’ve played a lot of cricket and have been back to South Africa since then for one-dayers. They’re a good side at the moment, obviously beat us in the World Test Championship final. They have a really good pace attack as well, so should be a cracker of a series.”
No attempt to rewrite history. No dwelling on it either. Just a cold, professional focus on the opposition and the challenge.
No plans to walk away
Uncertainty over his Test horizon does not mean Smith is drifting towards retirement from the game altogether. Quite the opposite. He is actively chasing more white-ball cricket, with a very specific target in mind: the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“Right now probably it’s just the Olympics to try to be a part of that,” he said, underlining how seriously he views the prospect of cricket’s return to the Games.
That ambition partly explains his recent T20 choices. “One of the reasons why I wanted to play with Amsterdam [at the European T20 Premier League] was just to continue playing as much T20 cricket as I can.”
He is not setting a finish line. He is stretching the track.
“I still like to think I could play T20 cricket for a while. What’s next for me when I finish? I’m not sure, but yeah, hopefully a bit more time left playing.
“I've achieved a lot in the game. It’s been a great ride for the last 15 years or thereabouts. I’ve had a lot of fun. I’m still enjoying it, so I don’t have an end date, we’ll wait and see. But it’s been a good ride.”
There is no hint of a player worn down by the grind. If anything, Smith sounds like someone enjoying the freedom that comes with knowing he owes nothing to the record books.
Still mastering the hardest format
The numbers say he remains a force in the longest format. In an era of increasingly bowler-friendly pitches and extravagant seam movement, Smith averages 49.4 over the past two years and has pushed his Test century tally to 37.
He feels that evolution in his own game.
“I feel like I’m batting really nicely,” he said. “I’ve found different ways to go about things on these tricky surfaces and still be able to score runs. So trying to contribute as well as I can for the team, score runs, take catches, help out in leadership areas where I need to. It’s been a good, fun couple of years.”
This is not a veteran hanging on. It is a senior pro adapting, tinkering, solving the puzzle all over again.
So the Ashes question lingers. Does one of the great modern Test batters give himself one last tilt at history in England, or does he walk away on his own terms before then?
For now, Smith refuses to be rushed. South Africa first. Then India. Then, maybe, the final act of his Ashes story.
