Michael Clarke has special request for Justin Langer after recent Steve Smith comments

Australia's Test captain Tim Paine was lambasted by many for his tactics during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India, and the wicketkeeper-batsman also came under the scanner as Australia lost the four-match series against India on their home turf. Several speculations have been made regarding Australia's Test captaincy and star fast bowler Pat Cummins appears to be the front-runner. While it remains to be seen who will be Tim Paine's successor, former Australia captain Michael Clarke has come up with a special request for the team's head coach, Justin Langer. 

Michael Clarke in favour of Pat Cummins becoming Australia's all-formats captain 

While Tim Paine leads the Australian team in Test matches, it is Aaron Finch who is the captain for white-ball assignments. Former Australia captain Steve Smith has also recently expressed his desire on taking up the responsibility of leading the national side again, but Michael Clarke does not seem to share the same opinion. The 2015 World Cup-winning captain feels that Pat Cummins appears to be the ideal candidate for the job. 

Speaking on the Big Sports Breakfast, Clarke pointed out that just because Pat Cummins has not come out in the open regarding his captaincy aspirations, it does not mean that he is not ready to take up the role. The former cricketer also stated that he was impressed with Cummins' performances as the captain of the New South Wales team. Clarke also reckoned that there are a number of senior players like Steve Smith, David Warner and Nathan Lyon who can guide the young fast bowler. 

However, head coach Justin Langer in a recent conversation with ABC Sport backed current captains Tim Paine and Aaron Finch. He suggested that the captaincy role is not up for grabs at the moment and considering Australia's upcoming campaigns; they plan to go ahead with the two existing leaders. Interestingly, Steve Smith also recently missed out on captaining his Indian Premier League franchise Delhi Capitals in the upcoming season. 

Steve Smith IPL 2021 

Several names including Steve Smith, R Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane were floated around after it was reported that Shreyas Iyer will miss a considerable part of the Indian Premier League due to his shoulder injury. The DC franchise confirmed that the player has been ruled out of the impending season. The think tank went with Rishabh Pant as their new leader ahead of Steve Smith, who has led multiple IPL teams in the past. It is worth mentioning that there was not much of a demand for the star batter in the IPL 2021 auction. The Steve Smith IPL 2021 bid was won by DC for ₹2.2 crore.   

Image source: AP