Steve Smith is to leave Sri Lanka early and return to Australia to rest up for the upcoming series against South Africa, with David Warner to take over captaincy of Australia’s one-day and T20 teams for the remainder of the tour.
The news comes as Australia suffered an 82-run defeat in the second ODI against Sri Lanka to leave the series finely poised at 1-1.
Warner will take over for the three one-day internationals in Dambulla and Kandy, and the two T20 matches that follow. Warner will be the 23rd man to captain Australia’s one-day team, and the 10th to lead the T20 team.
Cricket Australia’s National Selector Rod Marsh said in a statement: “Steve has a large amount of cricket coming up in the next 12 months and we wanted to find a time for him to freshen up and these last five matches provide a good opportunity to do so.
“Regardless of the results of the first two matches our plan was always for Steve to take a break and refresh ahead of the ODI Series against South Africa next month.
“This is a great leadership opportunity for David, he has really embraced his role as vice-captain and we are confident he will do a great job in Steve’s place.”
Smith has captained Australia for the past 24 ODIs since taking over from Michael Clarke following the World Cup triumph in Melbourne last year.
He has lead Australia to victory in 15 of those matches, with Australia’s defeat in the second ODI in Colombo last night the eighth defeat of his stewardship.
Warner has been Smith’s deputy since Clarke’s retirement from the Test and one-day formats. Warner captained his T20 franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad to the Indian Premier League title this season.
