Steve Smith Keeps Future Open for Ashes and Beyond
Steve Smith is in no rush to promise one last Ashes crusade. Not yet.
At 37, with 37 Test hundreds and a legacy already carved deep into Australian cricket, Smith is keeping his future deliberately loose, refusing to lock himself into another tilt at England next northern summer.
“I don't even know if I’ll be there yet,” he told The Telegraph, laying it out with typical bluntness. “I'm in kind of a series-by-series proposition, as I’ve been for a while, and that’s still a fair way away for me right now. I’d love to win one there or to have won one there, but you wait and see if that comes to fruition.”
For a player so often portrayed as obsessively driven, this is a different Smith: still hungry, but pragmatic. Australia’s next Ashes tour dangles the chance to finally win a series in England, the one box this golden era has not ticked. He is not biting. Not yet.
One series at a time
Australia are staring at a brutal Test calendar: away tours to South Africa, India and England, a gauntlet that would test any side, let alone one trying to manage the final chapters of several great careers.
Smith’s gaze, though, stops at the first hurdle. His focus is on the upcoming three-Test series against the reigning World Test Championship holders, a return to South African Test cricket for the first time since the 2018 ball-tampering scandal that detonated his captaincy and reshaped his life.
“For me, it’s just another series,” he said, determined not to let the past dominate the narrative. “All that happened a long time ago, and we’ve played a lot of cricket and have been back to South Africa since then for one-dayers.
“They’re a good side at the moment, obviously beat us in the World Test Championship final. They have a really good pace attack as well, so should be a cracker of a series.”
The ghosts of Cape Town will swirl regardless, but Smith has chosen not to feed them. For him, this is about fast bowlers, conditions, runs. Not redemption arcs.
No farewell tour in sight
While the Ashes question hangs in the air, Smith is not talking about retirement in any definitive terms. He refuses to draw an end date, refuses to script a farewell.
He still wants to play. And not just Tests.
T20 remains a live frontier for him, with one target in particular shining through the haze: the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where cricket is set to return to the Games.
“Right now probably it’s just the Olympics to try to be a part of that,” Smith said.
That long-range ambition helps explain his decision to chase more short-form opportunities. “One of the reasons why I wanted to play with Amsterdam [at the European T20 Premier League] was just to continue playing as much T20 cricket as I can.”
He believes his game still fits the format. “I still like to think I could play T20 cricket for a while. What’s next for me when I finish? I’m not sure, but yeah, hopefully a bit more time left playing.
“I’ve achieved a lot in the game. It’s been a great ride for the last 15 years or thereabouts. I’ve had a lot of fun. I’m still enjoying it, so I don’t have an end date, we’ll wait and see. But it’s been a good ride.”
There is no hint of a man clinging on. Just someone content with what he has done and curious about what might still be left.
Still mastering the hardest format
If anything, the numbers suggest Smith has adapted as the Test game has tilted further towards bowlers. On increasingly treacherous pitches, with seamers armed with movement for longer and reverse swing often in play, he has averaged 49.4 over the last two years, maintaining elite output while pushing his century tally to 37.
“I feel like I’m batting really nicely,” he said. “I’ve found different ways to go about things on these tricky surfaces and still be able to score runs.
“So trying to contribute as well as I can for the team, score runs, take catches, help out in leadership areas where I need to. It’s been a good, fun couple of years.”
That last line matters. Enjoyment, not milestones, is now the compass. As long as he feels he is solving problems at the crease, influencing games, and still waking up wanting to do it again, he will keep turning up.
So the Ashes question lingers. Will he be there at Lord’s, at The Oval, one more time, chasing the one away series that has always eluded him?
For now, Smith has parked it. South Africa comes first. Then India. The rest can wait.
If this is the twilight, it is on his terms—and the game still hasn’t quite worked out when he plans to turn out the lights.
