Smith’s message to the United States after refusing to participate in the World Cup

Steve Smith showed the Australian T20 selectors who snubbed him for the World Cup what they were missing with an electric performance in his first Major League Cricket outing in the United States.

The veteran baseball star is among 18 Australians taking part in the fledgling competition after playing in the T20 circuit during a long break in the Test calendar.

Before Australia’s early exit from the T20 World Cup, former Australia captain Mark Taylor said Smith’s omission from the 15-man squad was “what worried me”.

In his first outing for the Washington Freedom in Dallas, Smith, who recently turned 35, showed the selectors what they were missing, hitting three sixes and four fours in 28 balls of 46 innings, finishing unbeaten in a big win in a rain-marred match.

Smith, the Freedom captain, opened the batting with Travis Head, who had just one shot, in a lineup that also included Glenn Maxwell, who was not needed.

They are among six members of the World Cup squad travelling to the United States, including Marcus Stoinis, the only Australian to be part of the official ICC squad for the tournament.

Last week, former Australia coach and cricket great Mark Waugh called for radical changes to the T20 team, labelling players like Jake Fraser-McGurk, who also plays in the MLC, as too good to have missed out on the World Cup.

“With the amount of talent we have in the team and around the team, we should do a lot better than that,” he told Fox Sports.

“We have a lot of good players who didn’t play in this tournament.

“Jake Fraser-McGurk should have been in the team because he was there, ready, locked and loaded to step in if you needed him, but he wasn’t there.”