\n<\/p>\n
Steve Smith Ready to Lead Australia if Cummins Can’t Play<\/strong><\/p>\n Steve Smith, the acting captain of the Australian Test cricket team, has expressed his readiness to step in as captain if Pat Cummins is unable to participate in the upcoming tournament due to an ankle injury. Cummins has been sidelined since leading Australia to victory in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and is likely to miss the ICC event as well.<\/p>\n Ahead of the second Test match against Sri Lanka, Smith shared his excitement about captaining in the subcontinent. He recently led the Australian team in the last two Tests against India during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2024\/25, where he remained undefeated, winning one match and drawing another.<\/p>\n \u201cI really enjoy captaining in these conditions. It feels like a game of chess, moving pieces around and planning strategies,\u201d Smith said. He added that his current focus is on making this series a success before shifting his attention to One Day Internationals.<\/p>\n Smith also provided an update on Sam Konstas, who was sent home before the final Test of the tour. He expressed confidence in Konstas, noting that the batter has gained valuable experience, even though he didn\u2019t play in matches where spin was prominent. Smith compared Konstas’ experience to his own when he toured Sri Lanka in 2013, emphasizing how important net practices in challenging conditions can be for improvement.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s gotten better each day during practice. The conditions have been tough, but he\u2019s starting to get a feel for playing spin and dealing with the reverse swing,\u201d Smith mentioned. He believes that such experiences will be beneficial for Konstas in the long run.<\/p>\n As the team prepares for their next match, which they won by an impressive innings and 242 runs in the opening Test, they are still finalizing their playing eleven. There\u2019s a chance that they might choose spin-bowling all-rounder Cooper Connolly instead of left-arm spinner Todd Murphy.<\/p>\n \u201cAll options are open, and we\u2019ll make the decision at the last minute because we\u2019re equipped with the resources here,\u201d Smith said. The spin duo of Matt Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon played crucial roles in the first Test, and Smith noted that their team has additional spin options, including Travis Head.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re considering all our options carefully before the final decision,\u201d Smith concluded.<\/p>\n The second and last Test of the series is set to begin on February 6 at 10 AM local time.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Steve Smith Ready to Lead Australia if Cummins Can’t Play Steve Smith, the acting captain of the Australian Test cricket team, has expressed his readiness to step in as captain if Pat Cummins is unable to participate in the upcoming tournament due to an ankle injury. Cummins has been sidelined since leading Australia to victory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1474,6971,6970],"class_list":["post-6416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-steve-smith","tag-steve-smith-australia-vs-sri-lanka","tag-steve-smith-champions-trophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}