Steve Smith will join forces with an old teammate in the Pakistan Super League after he was overlooked for Australia's T20 World Cup campaign.
It was announced on Tuesday night (AEDT) that Smith had signed with Sialkot Stallionz for the upcoming PSL season, which begins in March.
The team will be coached by Smith's former teammate Tim Paine, for its inaugural season.
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"One of the all time great players is a @PSLStallionz!!!" Paine wrote on X.
"Huge for our franchise and @thePSLt20."
Despite Smith's form in the BBL and the Ashes series, Australia selectors opted to go in a different direction.
However, national selector Tony Dodemaide said Smith was in contention for selection if injury strikes the team down.
From his six BBL matches, Smith scored 299 runs at 59.80 and Australia's misfortunes against Pakistan led to further questions around his non-selection.
The 36-year-old opened the batting for the Sixers in those matches, but with Mitch Marsh and Travis Head in Australia's squad those two have been preferred there.
If Smith was picked it'd have to be down the order.
Cameron Green, Matt Renshaw, Tim David, Cooper Connolly, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis are the men ahead of him there. Notably, Renshaw and David are the two that are unlikely to offer a bowling option just like Smith.
David has been injured in the lead up while Renshaw batted at four and five against Pakistan.
He finished with 15, 2 and 1 but had Big Bash form leading into the series.
Speaking to 9News Sydney, Australian captain Pat Cummins explained why it's been Renshaw picked over Smith for the World Cup.
"He's (Smith) been unbelievable. What he did at the back end of the Big Bash was phenomenal but pretty clearly Matt Renshaw's also done really well," he said.
"It's a bit of a different role to where Steve normally plays. What it takes to bat at five or six, you're trying to go from the first ball of your innings, it's very different to walking out there and opening with only two fielders out.
"No doubt, the really good players are adaptive and can almost bat anywhere, but it's a pretty strong batting line-up when you look at all the different roles."
Cummins himself won't play in the World Cup due to his back injury.
However, the fast bowler isn't moving on from the T20 format like his teammate Mitchell Starc.
"I don't feel like I need to make any call on one of the formats," he said.
"Some years it might be more one-day cricket and for example next year we have an ODI World Cup so it might be more one-dayers than T20 focused. Test cricket is where I want to concentrate all my focus and then obviously ICC events like the one I'm missing here."
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