Smith keen to continue as Australia ODI captain

Steve Smith has underlined his eagerness to continue as Australia's one-day captain following their 4-1 series loss to England.

Smith was the undisputed star man in the recent Ashes rubber, racking up 687 runs at a staggering average of 137 as Australia romped to a 4-0 win.

However, the skipper managed just 102 runs in five ODI innings against England, while vice-captain David Warner fared even worse, contributing only 73 runs in the series.

Amid talk of potential sweeping changes to Australia's 50-over team, Smith was quoted by ESPNCricinfo as saying: "I'm happy leading these boys at the moment.

"Unfortunately, I haven't done as well with the bat in this series as I would have liked. Probably both me and Dave, as the senior players, haven't stepped up.

"We were talking about it just before and that really hurts your team when your two senior players aren't scoring the runs that they need to be.

"[But] I'd like to keep taking this team forward and leading the boys and doing the best I can."

Smith will play no part in the upcoming triangular Twenty20 series with England and New Zealand, and is welcoming the chance to take a short break before Australia head to South Africa next month.

"I'm looking forward to this rest," he added.

"It's been a long summer. I haven't contributed the way I would have liked in this series.

"[I've got] a couple of weeks off now to refresh, recharge and get myself ready for what's a challenging South African tour."