Rajasthan Royals captain Steve Smith hopes IPL will take place 'at some stage'

If the cricket tournament does begin, it will experience a shortened season due to the coronavirus lockdown

Steve Smith, right, is set to captain the Rajasthan Royals if the Indian Premier League takes place this year. AP Photo

Steve Smith said he is hoping the Indian Premier League (IPL) will take place "at some stage" as the Australian batsman looks forward to leading the Rajasthan Royals.

Like most major sport around the world, cricket has gone into lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic. The IPL was scheduled to begin on March 29 but has been suspended as a consequence of the outbreak.

The opening match was pushed to April 15 but it is unclear if this year's IPL will be played at all or cancelled altogether. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly has said that should the IPL take place, it will be a shortened season.

"Plenty going on in the world at present, but hopefully we can get an IPL at some stage," said Smith, in a podcast published on Tuesday by the Rajasthan Royals, who he is set to captain.

"The two seasons that I captained the Royals were both half seasons. Shane Watson gave me the captaincy in 2015 and then last year out of the blue, I took over at the back end of the season."

"Looking at having a crack at it full time and the Royals have a pretty good squad."

Aside from the IPL, Smith - the top-ranked Test batsman in the world - also has his eyes on another big prize: winning a Test series in India.

"As an Australian cricketer - Ashes is always big and World Cups are big," he told New Zealand spinner Ish Sodhi in the Royals podcast.

"But now India is the No 1 team in the world, it's a very difficult place to play Test cricket, so I'd love to be able to win a series there."

Australia are not scheduled to tour India until 2022.

Smith, 30, was captain of the Australia Test side before he was punished for his role in a ball-tampering scandal in 2018 and hit with a two-year leadership ban. That ban expired last month, sparking speculation that he could return to the helm.

Smith is widely considered one of the modern-day giants of batting, having scored 7,227 runs, including 26 centuries, in 73 Tests.

He had narrowly missed out on his series dream in 2017 when India edged the visiting Australians 2-1 in a bitterly fought campaign.

Ricky Ponting remains the only Australian captain to have won a Test series in India, in 2004-05.