Australian coach Justin Langer has poured cold water on the potential of Steve Smith to return as the nation’s skipper.
Speaking on 1170 SEN, Langer said he hoped current captains Tim Paine and Aaron Finch would continue to lead the test and ODI/T20 teams for a long time.
“There’s been a lot of talk about it, about the Steve Smith process,” Langer said.
“Since I’ve been in the job we’ve gone for the double vice-captain at first, and then we pulled it back to the one vice-captain. We’re trying to build this leadership culture within the team.
“The truth is at the moment, and there’s a lot of discussion around Stevey (Steve Smith) and him moving forward as captain, but we’ve got an outstanding test captain in Tim Paine, we’ve got an outstanding captain in Aaron Finch, and they’re going to captain for some time.”
Langer said it’s all about timing when it comes to the Australian captaincy role.
“With the Australian captain, it’s always about timing. We know Steve has done it before and he’s showing great leadership in being the best batsmen in the world and he’s great amongst the group,” Langer said.
“I honestly believe these things have a funny way of working themselves out.
“Everybody can talk as much as they want about Stevey becoming the next captain, nobody knows when that's going to happen, so we’ll worry about it then.”