Smith will rejoin the Australian team for the Boxing Day Test and continue as stand-in captain in place of Pat Cummins after recovering from an inner-ear issue. With Australia already having secured the urn and now aiming for a clean sweep in the Ashes, Smith was asked if he felt any sympathy for the English team, which is under heavy scrutiny.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Smith, who was stripped of the Australian captaincy and received a year-long suspension following the Sandpaper-gate scandal in South Africa, is familiar with the pressures of being in the spotlight and expressed empathyfor England's current situation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re losing, the spotlight is always on you and things can get spoken about and get blown up pretty heavily. So \u2026 I feel for them, in a way. It can be tricky. You\u2019re in a country where you know you can go out and about and enjoy yourselves, and with big breaks, you know, you\u2019ve got to experience the country that you\u2019re in as well. And they had a pretty big break in between,\u201d Smith told reporters at the MCG on Christmas Day.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The focus has shifted from England\u2019s short preparation for the series to allegations that several team members overindulged during a break in Noosa between the Brisbane and Adelaide Tests. Smith stated he has no problem with the team taking a break between matches and believes it can serve as a reset for teams under pressure or not at their best.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re losing, the spotlight is always on you and things can get spoken about and get blown up pretty heavily. So \u2026 I feel for them, in a way. It can be tricky. You\u2019re in a country where you know you can go out and about and enjoy yourselves, and with big breaks, you know, you\u2019ve got to experience the country that you\u2019re in as well. And they had a pretty big break in between,\u201d Smith told reporters at the MCG on Christmas Day.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\"I can't really comment more than that on how they\u2019re feeling or how they\u2019re going about things but, yeah, I certainly believe that when you\u2019ve lost two Test matches, and you\u2019ve got such a long break, sometimes you just need to get away from the game and switch off entirely,\" he said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n