Steve Smith PSL: Had insulted Babar Azam, now Steve Smith will play in PSL, forced to withdraw from IPL-T20 World Cup

New Delhi. After not being selected in Australia’s T20 World Cup team, veteran batsman Steve Smith has been forced to play in the Pakistan Super League. Smith has been signed by the new PSL team Sialkot Stallions before the 11th season of the league. This former Australian captain was disappointed in the mini auction of IPL 2025, when no team showed any interest in buying him even at the base price. Smith created a stir with his stormy batting for Sydney Sixers in the recently concluded Big Bash League.

Smith has been included in the team under direct signing. This could happen because of the new rule of Pakistan Super League, under which now every franchise can directly sign a player outside the draft. Sialkot Stallions is one of the two new teams of PSL. The number of this league has been increased to eight for the 2026 season. The second new team has been included from Hyderabad, Sindh. 36 year old Smith will now be seen playing in PSL for the first time. Sialkot Stallions officially announced his signing on Tuesday.

Smith’s bat spoke in Big Bash League
Smith performed brilliantly in the Big Bash League. Playing for Sydney Sixers in BBL 2025-26, Smith scored 299 runs in just 6 matches. During this period his strike rate was 167.97 and average was 59.80. He scored a century and two half-centuries and played an important role in taking the team to the final. Despite such good performance, Smith did not get a place in Australia’s 2026 T20 World Cup team. He last played a T20 match for Australia in February 2024. Since then he is out of the team in this format. So far, Smith has scored 1094 runs in 67 T20 matches for Australia, his strike rate has been 125.45. He was also a part of Australia’s 2021 T20 World Cup winning team.

Babar Azam was insulted
Babar Azam was a part of Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League 2025-26. Smith also played for this team. During a match, Smith had denied Babar Azam a single on the last ball of the over, because Babar was batting very slowly. In the next over, Smith hit sixes. Babar Azam looked angry after taking Smith’s single. Babar was out soon, after which his anger was clearly visible. When his bat was seen hitting the boundary rope.