Veteran Australia batter Steve Smith is looking forward to returning to international cricket against England next month and he is keen to play a part in their push for an Olympic medal in 2028 as well. However, Smith has not given up hope of returning to Australia’s T20I side as well.

However, Smith faced a setback to his long-term plans when he was dropped from Australia’s squad at the recent ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, but he has since made a strong impact in the T20 format with some excellent performances in franchise cricket in the recently completed Major League Cricket tournament in the USA as well.

“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.”

However, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting stated his excitement in the ICC Review about cricket’s reintroduction on a global stage in the 2028 Olympic Games as well. Meanwhile, Australia haven’t won a Test series against India on home soil since the beginning of 2015 and the battle for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy this time around will be important for them to qualify for next year’s ICC World Test Championship final at Lord’s as well.

“You can’t really hide in a five-Test series like you probably can in a two-match series for instance. 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,” Steve Smith concluded.