After veteran batsman Usman Khawaja publicized his retirement, the Australian captain Steve Smith has also revealed his future plans before the 5th Ashes 2025 Test.
Will Steve Smith Retire After Ashes 2025 5th Test?
At the pre-match conference, the 36-year-old player was asked the same question and he outright rejected all speculations regarding him taking the same route as Khawaja after the series of five Tests comes to an end. He said that the departure of two such experienced pillars at the same time would have a negative effect on the Baggy Greens.
“With Usman dropping off now, he’s one of our experienced players, so it probably wouldn’t be ideal if he and I went out this week. I want to keep playing so don’t read into that too much. I’m still playing, I’m enjoying it, so we’ll wait and see,” he stated.
The right-hander talked about how the Australian Test team has been growing stronger every year in the past years, with the consecutive presence in the WTC finals. However, while reminiscing about a high-impact 16-year career, the player also shared his new position in the team
Steve Smith is hoping he will be able to create another Australia Test Squad while the transition is happening. Smith was saying that his role during the transition period will be to mentor the players and that he will create a strong core of players before retiring from the game. The team had already gone through a lot of trouble when the retirement of Warner in January 2024 made them search for his replacement at the top of the order.
The promising young batsman Sam Konstas got the chance to play his first Test but failed to perform after that. At the same time, the 20-year-old’s continuous failures gave the opportunity to the Tasmanian batter Jake Weatherald, who has not yet scored any significant innings apart from 72 runs in the second Ashes 2025 Test.
“I am just enjoying cricket, it is fun and I feel like the team is really good,” Smith added. “It has been good to be part of and as an elder player now, hopefully, I can help some of the players’ coming through and teach them the game of Test cricket. That’s my role now.”
It is important to note that by taking on the captain’s role again in place of Pat Cummins, Smith has led Australia to yet another home Ashes win. Smith made 249 runs in total, which included three half-centuries, and was not out in the second innings of all his Ashes 2025 matches so far.