Smith stands in as captain with Australia looking to sweep West Indies

MELBOURNE : More than four years on from the Newlands ball-tampering scandal, Steve Smith has shelved his ambitions of regaining the Australia captaincy full-time but will gladly step in this week as the hosts look to whitewash West Indies at Adelaide Oval.

For the second Adelaide test in succession, Smith will captain the side in place of regular skipper Pat Cummins on Thursday as the fast bowler rests with a quadricep strain.

Last year, Smith slotted in for the Ashes test against England when Cummins was ruled out by COVID-19 protocols. It proved a seamless transition as Smith scored 93 in the first innings, took six catches overall and led Australia to a 275-run win and a 2-0 series lead.

A year later, Smith will hope to lead Australia to a 2-0 series sweep against the Caribbeans and extend his nation's perfect record with the pink ball to 10 day-night test wins.

"I have to do it my own way," Smith told reporters on Wednesday at Adelaide Oval.

"I took over for the game here last year and I thought it worked out pretty smoothly. So, same again."

Having succeeded Michael Clarke as test captain in 2015, Smith was stripped of the rank over 'Sandpaper-gate' in 2018 and banned from leadership positions for three years.

After the ban expired in March 2021, Smith was overlooked for the captaincy in favour of Cummins when Tim Paine stepped down last year over a 'sexting' scandal.

Smith has since been snubbed again for the one-day captaincy, also awarded to Cummins in October following Aaron Finch's retirement from the format.

T20 skipper Finch's future remains up in the air after Australia failed to reach the semi-finals of their home World Cup but Smith has learned not to get his hopes up.

"Pretty much, yeah. I'm pretty chilled so,