Smith aims to prove his point

Steve Smith wants to prove the Australian selectors wrong when he makes his first one-day international outing in over 12 months on Friday. Smith was left out of the Australian ODI squad in the first three matches against England before being recalled for game four, but the 24-year-old felt that he had done enough in the domestic Ryobi Cup and through the Ashes Test series to warrant a spot from the start. He was one of the top five run-scorers in the first half of the Australian domestic 50-over competition, scoring 321 runs at an average of 53.50, while he notched two centuries as Australia demolished England 5-0 in the Ashes. Australia already lead England 3-0 in the five-match ODI series and while Smith has one eye on another whitewash, he clearly wants to cement a spot in his country's 50-over team. "I guess you're always disappointed when you're left out,'' Smith said. "I was pretty happy with the Ryobi Cup that I had at the start of the year and I think I put a few good performances up there but obviously the one-day team has been doing very well so it's quite a hard team to get in to. "I probably haven't had an opportunity in one-day cricket or T20 cricket for quite some time now and I think I've definitely improved my skills in the last 18 months, that's for sure. "I'm really happy with my one-day and T20 form that I've had with New South Wales and the Sixers recently, so I'm certainly in good form and ready to go in these next couple of games.'' Smith's last ODI appearance was in January 2013 when Australia lost by eight wickets to Sri Lanka in Adelaide. Since then, Australia have only lost seven of 21 completed ODIs. Having already clinched the ODI series versus England, Australia will move to the top of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) ODI Championship if India fail to beat New Zealand in a five-game series this month. Smith reckons Australia deserve to replace MS Dhoni's men at the top of the standings. "Yeah I think so. I think we're playing some very good one-day cricket,'' Smith said. "That's our aim as a team, to be No.1 in the world in all three forms and that would be ticking off one of those boxes if that happens and hopefully we can carry on in the other two formats to keep improving.''