Had injured my wrist at Lord's, reveals Steve Smith

Steve Smith has been left out of Australia’s limited-overs tour of South Africa, which has come as a body blow to them, considering the ODI series would have helped him prepare well for the ICC World Cup in India later this year. Smith suffered a small tendon tear in his left wrist that needed him to have a splint on his wrist for a short period of time, but the injury was too painful for him to take part in the South Africa.

"I did it at Lord's. I don't actually know the moment, it was when we were in the field," Smith told Fox Sports. "It wasn't until that night I was like, 'geez, what have I done here, it's a bit sore'.

"I played the next game and then I had a cortisone [injection] before Old Trafford. I got back [to Australia] and I was like, '[It's] still not quite right. I still can't do a lot of things properly.' I had another scan. There was a small tear in the tendon as well as a couple of other things."

If Smith were a part of the series, he would have opened for the first time in T20I cricket after having a lot of success in a similar role for Sydney Sixers in the last BBL. With David Warner losing out on his spot, the selectors wanted Smith to solidify his positon at the top of the order for the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and USA next year.

"I did speak to Andrew McDonald about it," Smith said. "He said I'd get more opportunities somewhere to press my case. It's kind of the dream job. Everyone wants to open the batting in T20s.

"There's not much accountability there, you just sort of go out there and play. You've got two fielders out for the first six overs, and if you get going then you're already in when the field goes out, so it's a nice time to bat."