Steve Smith rubbished claims of favoritism in team selection

Australian skipper Steve Smith triggered a new controversy in international cricket as he rubbished the claims that he favoured ‘his mates’ while selecting the Australian squad for any series. Smith terms those clams ‘absolute garbage’.

The speculation about favouritism started surfacing after his New South Wales team decided to drop veteran opener Ed Cowan from a recent game against South Australia and instead of Cowan Daniel Hughes was given a chance to play.

However, Smith is a not part of the three-man selection team of Cricket Australia (CA) but it has been at the receiving end of the criticism from former Australian players, as they believed Smith has too much authority in the team selection.

But, the 28-year-old didn’t take time to make a scathing attack on those allegations. He said that claims for selecting ‘his mates’ are ‘absolute garbage’.

“I’m not a selector, but I certainly speak to the selectors a lot and express my views,” Smith told reporters. “All this rubbish about me picking my mates, it’s absolute garbage. I certainly don’t agree with that.” he further said.

Australia eye for Ashes 

Allegations of favouritism came just before the Ashes starter in Brisbane. Australia will eye revenge for their humiliating defeat to England in 2015 away Ashes. Under Smith’s captaincy, the hosts will launch the mission to win the Urn.

CA is yet a select a team for the Ashes, there is already too much talk regarding the selection. With David Warner, Peter Handscomb, Mathew Wade, Matt Renshaw, Hilton Cartwright and Glenn Maxwell will feature the batting line up while the bowling attack is expected to feature Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Aston Agar and Adam Zama.

The five-Test Ashes will start from November 23 at Gabba, Brisbane and the final and fifth Test will be played at Sydney Cricket Ground (SGC) in Sydney.