{"id":11029,"date":"2026-02-16T14:45:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T09:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/?p=11029"},"modified":"2026-02-16T14:45:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T09:15:53","slug":"australia-names-steve-smith-in-squad-hours-before-kangaroo-lion-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/si\/australia-names-steve-smith-in-squad-hours-before-kangaroo-lion-clash\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia names Steve Smith in squad hours before Kangaroo-lion clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australia has made a change to its squad for the T20 World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Accordingly, the move has been made to replace batsman Steve Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This replacement replaces fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, who was forced to withdraw from the tournament earlier this month due to injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No other player has been replaced in place of Hazlewood before. Australia, who also lost to Zimbabwe, are currently facing the risk of being eliminated from the tournament, and they are scheduled to play a crucial match against Sri Lanka today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Smith was recently brought to Sri Lanka to replace T20 captain Mitchell Marsh, who missed the first two matches due to injury, in case he is called up to the squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Accordingly, he was also engaged in training with the rest of the team in Kandy yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Marsh has now recovered and he too was engaged in training yesterday.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australia has made a change to its squad for the T20 World Cup. Accordingly, the move has been made to replace batsman Steve Smith. This replacement replaces fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, who was forced to withdraw from the tournament earlier this month due to injury. No other player has been replaced in place of Hazlewood&#8230;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,60,57],"tags":[157,73,134,102,72,2699],"class_list":["post-11029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket","category-international-cricket","category-national-cricket","tag-australia","tag-slsports","tag-sports-news","tag-sri-lanka","tag-sri-lanka-cricket","tag-steve-smith"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Australia names Steve Smith in squad hours before Kangaroo-lion clash - SL Sports<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/si\/australia-names-steve-smith-in-squad-hours-before-kangaroo-lion-clash\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"si_LK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australia names Steve Smith in squad hours before Kangaroo-lion clash - SL Sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Australia has made a change to its squad for the T20 World Cup. 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