{"id":428497,"date":"2026-02-16T10:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/428497\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T10:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:34:08","slug":"t20-world-cup-australia-add-steve-smith-to-their-squad-before-crucial-sri-lanka-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/428497\/","title":{"rendered":"T20 World Cup: Australia add Steve Smith to their squad before crucial Sri Lanka match"},"content":{"rendered":"

Batter Steve Smith has been added to Australia’s T20 World Cup squad in time for Monday’s crucial match against Sri Lanka in Pallekele.<\/p>\n

Smith, 36, travelled to Sri Lanka as cover after captain Mitchell Marsh was hit in the groin area last week and suffered “testicular bleeding”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smith was not officially added to the squad, with the management waiting to see how the situation developed, but now comes in as a replacement for bowler Josh Hazlewood.<\/p>\n

Hazlewood was ruled out on the eve of the tournament<\/a> and not replaced.<\/p>\n

Selector Tony Dodemaide said: “With Steve here, along with some uncertainty around Mitch and Marcus Stoinis, it made sense he is activated and available for selection in time for the match, if required.”<\/p>\n

Smith has not played a T20 for Australia since February 2024 but scored a century and two fifties in six matches in the Big Bash after the Ashes in January, leading some to suggest he should have been in Australia’s squad regardless.<\/p>\n

Australia’s batters have struggled in the tournament so far, bowled out for 146 all out in a 23-run defeat by Zimbabwe to leave their place in the Super 8s.<\/p>\n

They beat Ireland by 67 runs in their opening match but also lost 3-0 in Pakistan prior to the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Australia will be eliminated from the World Cup if they lose to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe beat Ireland on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

They may need to win both their remaining games and rely on net run-rate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Batter Steve Smith has been added to Australia’s T20 World Cup squad in time for Monday’s crucial match…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-428497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}