Steve Smith pulls out of the Sri Lanka tour

The Australian team will see a couple of changes in their line-up after Steve Smith opted to keep himself out of the remainder of the ODI series against Sri Lanka. He declared this during the post-match conference following their 82 runs loss to the hosts in the 2 ODI.

He will be leaving Sri Lanka early to take rest before the upcoming series against South Africa. Vice captain and openers David Warner will take over the leadership role for the remaining three ODIs and 2 T20Is. Warner will be the 23rd man to captain Australia’s one-day team, and the 10th to lead the T20 team.

Cricket Australia’s National Selector Rod Marsh said in a statement: “Steve Smith has a large amount of cricket coming up in the next 12 months and we wanted to find a time for him to freshen up and these last five matches provide a good opportunity to do so.

“Regardless of the results of the first two matches our plan was always for Steve to take a break and refresh ahead of the ODI Series against South Africa next month.

“This is a great leadership opportunity for David, he has really embraced his role as vice-captain and we are confident he will do a great job in Steve’s place.”

Warner, who has been the vice-captain of the team since Clarke’s retirement from the Test and one-day formats, had a great time leading his T20 franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad to the Indian Premier League title this season.

Smith: I hate missing cricket, but in the long run it will do me a world of good #SLvAUS pic.twitter.com/5PR1tbN38a

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) August 24, 2016

Smith: The schedule is very busy. I still want to take on the role in all three formats and do it to the best of my ability #SLvAUS

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) August 24, 2016

Steve Smith says he had talks with selectors about early return to Aust prior to ODIs starting. But needed convincing to miss games #SLvAUS

— Andrew Ramsey (@ARamseyCricket) August 24, 2016