Smith was overlooked for Australia\u2019s T20 World Cup campaign<\/a>, despite his excellent recent form in the Ashes Test series and, more pertinently, Big Bash League. <\/p>\nPakistan sweep Australia in T20I series | 01:08<\/p>\n
After dominating England with the bad in the red-ball format, Smith found stellar BBL form, blasting 299 runs at 59.80 with a strike rate of 167.97 from just six games for the Sydney Sixers. But Smith was pipped in the Australian T20 squad by Matthew Renshaw, who was named in the BBL15 team of the tournament after scoring 324 runs and chipping in with five wickets from 10 games for the Brisbane Heat.<\/p>\n
Australian legend Mark Waugh was left stunned by the call, suggesting Smith \u201con current form, should be the first player picked\u201d for Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really does defy logic that Steve Smith is not in the World Cup squad,\u201d he tweeted.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet him in there, as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n
National selector Tony Dodemaide said Smith was \u201cvery much in contention\u201d to be called up \u201cif a replacement (player) is required\u201d.<\/p>\n
Steve Smith of the Sixers acknowledges a half century. Picture: Jeremy Ng\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cSteve is an exceptional player who has worked very hard on his short-form game and was rewarded with a great stint in the Big Bash batting at the top for the Sixers,\u201d Dodemaide told reporters on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current T20 top order has been very successful building into this tournament so we feel we\u2019re well-placed in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith is set to again play in the Major League US cricket competition this year. He\u2019s also previously played for Welsh Fire (UK Hundred) and five IPL franchises.<\/p>\n
Paine isn\u2019t the only Australian coaching in the PSL, with ex-quick Jason Gillespie appointed coach of the new Hyderabad franchise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian superstar Steve Smith has linked up with a Pakistan Super League franchise for the first time in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1724,64,63,689,136015,29465,3423,22249,57608,221767,1950,1208,2057,2105,138790,90273,234946,124540,130021,3583,677,222600,15299,3473,46,60180,196191,167566,12540,85,18784,11545,234947,158194,167516,19517,3439],"class_list":["post-455861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-coaching","tag-australian-superstar","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-big-bash-league","tag-brisbane-heat","tag-cricket-competition","tag-cricket-news","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-jason-gillespie","tag-jim-callinan","tag-major-league-us","tag-mark-waugh","tag-matthew-renshaw","tag-northern-europe","tag-oceania","tag-origin-match","tag-pakistan","tag-paul-kane","tag-perth","tag-perth-scorchers","tag-series-defeat","tag-smith-signs","tag-southern-asia","tag-sports","tag-steven-smith","tag-strike-rate","tag-super-league-franchise","tag-sydney-sixers","tag-tim-paine","tag-tony-dodemaide","tag-western-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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