Steve Smith is just halfway through serving his one-year ban from international cricket but former Australia wicketkeeper batsman Adam Gilchrist is backing him to retake the captaincy of the men’s team in the future.
Smith, along with his deputy David Warner, was served with a one-year ban from international and domestic cricket by Cricket Australia following the ball-tampering episode which occurred in Cape Town earlier this year.
The former Australia skipper was handed a further 12-month ban from any leadership role with the team for his misdemeanours. Many have speculated that the batsman will never get a leadership with the Australian team again but Gilchrist believes that the 29-year-old has every chance to become skipper once more.
“I don’t think it’s out of the question that Steve Smith could possibly captain Australia again one day,” the Australia great was quoted as saying by foxsports.com.au.
Both Smith and Warner are currently serving one-year bans.
“He’s young enough and if he wants to play long enough, there’s every chance. Wouldn’t that be an amazing story of redemption.
“We all understood that he’s shown his remorse and his disappointment in himself and the damage that came out of that incident. Who knows down the track but it’s a long way off.”
Despite being out of action from international cricket since the end of March this year, Smith continues to rank high in the ICC Rankings for Test batsmen. The Aussie is currently in second place in the latest Test rankings, just one rating point behind India skipper Virat Kohli.