Cape Town: Australia’s coach Andrew McDonald presaged this match by speaking about how Steve Smith’s remarkable Test career would deserve prolonged celebration whenever he retired.
But there was no sense of celebration among Pat Cummins’ team about how abruptly Smith withdrew himself from the team for its return to Newlands for the first time since the 2018 ball-tampering scandal. The episode will hasten discussions about how much longer the 37-year-old has left in the baggy green cap.
Mitchell Starc stuck pointedly to matter-of-fact words about Smith’s neck niggle after the game, while a selection of furrowed brows and raised eyebrows from others made it clear that the series of events this week and on match morning had not gone down particularly well.
“Didn’t know anything about it until well, I sort of knew something was going on yesterday when I was trying to get my laundry at the hotel and I couldn’t get in the room,” Starc said. “But I didn’t know he wasn’t playing until I went out to warm up today.
“He’s obviously been battling that neck since last week. I think I don’t actually know what happened with that, and I haven’t asked. He seems upbeat enough, but I don’t know what treatment or what he’s had done with it so far.”
