{"id":440417,"date":"2025-02-11T01:04:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T02:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=440417"},"modified":"2025-02-11T05:13:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T05:13:50","slug":"smith-sweet-spot-clouds-potential-retirement-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=440417","title":{"rendered":"Smith 'sweet spot' clouds potential retirement plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffustralian coach Andrew McDonald<\/a> has left the door open for Steve Smith<\/a> to play Test cricket "as long as possible" after his blistering recent form.<\/p>\n

At the start of the home summer against India, the \ufeff35-year-old found himself under pressure to retain his spot in the Test side after a lean run of form.<\/p>\n

However, after blasting two centuries against India and another two against Sri Lanka, Smith looks certain to remain in the baggy green for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

\ufeffSmith was dominant in the 2-0 series win in Galle, filling in as captain for Pat Cummins<\/a>, with the Aussies now turning their attention to the World Test Championship final.<\/p>\n

There's also The Ashes next summer on home soil, which could loom as a potential swansong not only for Smith, but for Usman Khawaja<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n

But according to McDonald, \ufeffthe coaching staff and selectors won't be putting any sort of timeframe on Smith, allowing the all-time great to dictate his own future.<\/p>\n

"We're blessed to have him … he's coming into another sweet spot," he told AAP.<\/p>\n

"Hopefully that sort of form, he doesn't want to give up on that too soon. He plays every series and assesses where he's at, at the end of it.<\/p>\n

"When you're at that age and you've accomplished so much in your career, you're entitled to be able to do that.<\/p>\n

"The day that he goes, it'll be a big hole. When that comes, we're not sure at this stage.<\/p>\n

"As a coach, I'd love to have him for as long as possible."<\/p>\n

The next task for Smith will be leading the green and gold in the upcoming Champions Trophy<\/a> tournament, which returns for the first time since 2017.<\/p>\n

Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Marsh will all be unavailable for the Aussies, while all-rounder Marcus Stoinis has announced his retirement from ODIs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffustralian coach Andrew McDonald has left the door open for Steve Smith to play Test cricket "as long as possible" after his blistering recent form. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":440419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440417"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=440417"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":440420,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440417\/revisions\/440420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/440419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=440417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=440417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=440417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}