Recently, Steve Smith's journey has been quite the rollercoaster. He was initially left out of the Australian squad for the T20 World Cup, even after putting up impressive numbers in the BBL. Then, he got the call to step in for the injured captain, Mitchell Marsh, just before the match against Sri Lanka. But despite all that, he never made it onto the playing XI. That’s been the saga of Steve Smith lately. 

According to some unverified reports, he was in Adelaide when he got the call to join the Australian team. He was quickly flown to Colombo and then taken to Kandy ahead of the game against Sri Lanka. Yet, in a baffling turn of events, the in-form batter was left out of the lineup. 

After Australia lost that match, they were out of the tournament, but they still had one last game against Oman. Many thought this would be Smith's chance to shine, but once again, he was overlooked. Instead, Cameron Green was chosen, despite only managing to score 24 runs in the World Cup up to that point. 

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For some context, just a month ago, Smith racked up 299 runs for Sydney Thunder, boasting an average of 60 and a strike rate of 168. Sure, the Aussies might not have been too concerned about the Oman match, but what was the reasoning behind not playing him against Sri Lanka? Why bring him in as a backup if he wasn’t going to see any action? 

It seems these puzzling decisions contributed to Australia’s early exit from the tournament, including a loss to Zimbabwe. Now, it’s up to the management to have a chat with this cricketing legend and clarify his future in the format after the team heads home.