Steve Smith says he doesn’t know whether he’ll play another Test match in Australia in a surprisingly honest admission about his potential retirement.
The Aussie great passed Don Bradman with his 30th Test century on Thursday at the SCG, putting a pitiful South Africa to the sword alongside Usman Khawaja.
While Smith will join his teammates for the tour of India starting next month, and in England for the Ashes starting in June, he is not looking further down the road than that.
Watch Australia v South Africa. Every test match live and ad-break in play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
TALKING PTS: Baffling call has great ‘speechless’; moment of fury sums up Smith’s genius
After praising the 36-year-old Khawaja’s potential longevity, the 33-year-old Smith was asked whether he’d be in Australia for future cricketing summers.
“I don’t know. We’ll see,” Smith said.
“I’m enjoying it at the moment. I really can’t say how long I’ll play for. I’m not sure.
“Take it one tour at a time. Just enjoy it and enjoy training and trying to get better as well.
“Whilst I’m doing that I’m happy playing. But I don’t know how long it’ll last.”
Day 2: Uzzie, Smith pile hurt on Proteas | 01:44
Smith has previously flagged the potential of retiring earlier from the sport than most would expect.
“No, I don’t have a plan, but I’m 33 now,” he told The Daily Telegraph in November.
“I’ve been playing international cricket for 13 years. It’s a long time. I’m still enjoying it, but I’m certainly closer to the end than the start, that’s for sure.”
He also considered calling it quits for a brief period in 2019 following elbow surgery.
Smith sits fourth on Australia’s all-time run-scoring list with 8647 runs from 92 Tests, moving past Michael Clarke on Thursday.
“I don’t think about that stuff a great deal but I did look up at the board just after I got a 100 and to sit third on the list of all time Australians, there’s some pretty big names there so that’s pretty cool,” Smith said.
“Fourth on the run scorers list (too) … I don’t play for that kind of stuff but it was cool to look up and see my name amongst those great players. It was pretty special.”
