Steve Smith not thinking about Ashes as Australia prepare for World Test final

Steve Smith is not yet giving any thought to this winter’s Ashes as he attempts to help Australia retain their World Test Championship crown.

England have been vocal about their long-term planning being geared towards building a team capable of wresting the urn from Australia for the first time in a decade ahead of the 2025-26 series Down Under.

However, Smith is zoned in on this week’s World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s, starting on Wednesday, before Australia head to the Caribbean for three Tests and five T20s.

“The Ashes is a big series but you also can’t look too far ahead,” said Smith, winner of the Compton–Miller Medal for player of the Ashes series in 2017-18 and 2019.

“You’ve got to keep playing each game as it comes, every game is important with the World Test Championship on the line.

“That’s the reason it came in: to make every Test more relevant. We go to the West Indies next week and we’ve got a series there, that’ll be the next focus after this game.”

Australia’s last Test visit to Lord’s in the 2023 Ashes saw an extraordinary bust-up between a couple of players and Marylebone Cricket Club members, one of whom was expelled and two others suspended.

Asked about sort of reception he is anticipating from the members this time, Smith replied: “Unsure, and I’m actually not fussed either way.”

Australia defeated India in the 2023 final and are overwhelming favourites to see off the Proteas, whose place at the showpiece has been questioned, including by former England captain Michael Vaughan.

Vaughan said they got there “on the back of beating pretty much nobody”, while ex-Australia spinner Kerry O’Keeffe likened their run to “making the Wimbledon final without playing a seed along the way”.

South Africa played only a dozen Tests in the 2023-25 edition and did not have to face either England or Australia, although six successive wins saw them book their spot in the final with a match to spare.

Head coach Shukri Conrad said: “I’m tired of speaking about it, we’re here and that’s all that matters. We get a chance to walk away World Test champions.

“Playing Australia, it doesn’t get any bigger than that. What’s gone before counts for absolutely nothing at the minute. We’re quietly confident going into this game that we can pull one over them.

“We still hold Test cricket very dearly, our fixture list might not speak to that, but this is the biggest final all of our players have ever been involved in and their biggest match.”

Conrad and his coaching staff had dinner on Sunday evening with former England seamer Stuart Broad, who took 113 of his 604 Test wickets at Lord’s and has more dismissals against Australia than anyone else.

Broad joined South Africa as a consultant at practice on Monday to pass on tips to the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen about dealing with the notorious slope at the home of cricket.

“It was just a casual chat and if I didn’t call time at 10:30pm, I think he’d still be there chatting to us,” Conrad said.

“It was really enlightening, really casual and everybody walked away thinking ‘that was great’, Broady included.”