Former Australia captain Mark Taylor has said that he will not rule out a return for former skipper Steve Smith in the leadership role.

Smith was dumped from captaincy in the wake of the ball tampering scandal during the infamous South African tour in 2018. However, Taylor admits that Smith’s chances diminish the longer Tim Paine remains in the role.

Aaron Finch has since led the limited-overs teams while Paine was given the captaincy for Test matches. Finch led Australia to an ODI series win in India, while under Paine’s captaincy, Australia retained the Ashes last year.

“I think the thing that will potentially go against him is how long Tim Paine will play for,” Taylor was quoted as saying in Sydney Morning Herald. “If he’s still there at 37, 38, then it might be too late for Steve. Conversely, if in the next year or so Tim’s form (drops) or he gives it away, I’d like to think Steve would be considered.

The question of whether Smith will regain the captaincy of the Test team continues to gnaw at Australian cricket nearly three years after the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.

“Yes, some mistakes were made a couple of years ago, I still feel to the day he was very wary of the mistakes he made and I don’t think it would happen again. I wouldn’t rule him out of captaining Australia in the future.

On Paine, Taylor said: “I think he’s done a very good job, don’t get me wrong, but I also think he took over at such a hard time and the cricket side was at such a low there was a lot of room for improvement, put it that way.

“There’s no doubt he was made captain because he was a senior cricketer in Australian cricket, with his head screwed on right, and therefore he was the right man for the job at the right time.”