Steve Smith joins Cheteshwar Pujara at Sussex in England’s County Championship ahead of the WTC Final

With just over a month left in the 2023 World Test Championship Final, Australia’s serial run scorer, Steve Smith has joined hands with Cheteshwar Pujara at the Sussex Cricket Club in the ongoing County Championship season.
“I’ve always wanted to play some county cricket, it’s my first time. It’s probably hard to believe but nah, I’m looking forward to the next couple of weeks with all the boys. Seem like a great bunch,” Smith told Sussex in a first interview on their YouTube channel.
“I had some time off, we’ve obviously got a summer coming up here. Seems like a good opportunity to come and play some cricket. I’ve been doing nothing for the last four five weeks. Get some cricket here.”

Welcome, @stevesmith49! 👋 pic.twitter.com/AsLcBiPsCI
— Sussex Cricket (@SussexCCC) May 2, 2023
The former Australia skipper will play under the captainship of Pujara, who has been associated with Sussex since last summer and has a mind boggling 7 centuries in 12 innings for them.
The Indian number three would tell Sussex that not only is he looking forward to playing with Smith but also learning about captaincy and leadership from the latter.
“I’m keen to play with Puj as well,” the Australian said. “I’ve obviously played a lot against him and seen him score a lot of run against me. Hopefully we can spend some time together in the middle and learn a bit more about each other.”
Both Smith and Pujara are key features of the upcoming India-Australia WTC Final starting June 7 at the The Oval followed an Ashes series the Australian is equally looking forward to.
“It’s going to be a really exciting summer. Obviously England have been playing some incredible cricket over the last few months. Very different brand from what we’ve seen before in Test cricket. And we’ve been playing nicely as well.”

It won’t be the only crossover for the Australia number four though, who is looking forward to squaring up against his Australian teammate, Marnus Labuschagne, who plays for Glamorgan.
“There’s been a bit of banter. He thinks he’s going to get me out,” Smith would concede with a laugh.