Five reasons for Australia's recent struggles in away ODIs

#2 Steve Smith's slump

Steve Smith's ODI form hasn't been great of late

For a batsman who leads the ICC Test rankings by a country-mile, it is rather surprising to see Steve Smith at the 13th position in the ICC ODI rankings for batsmen. However, a closer look at the numbers reveals exactly why Australia's captain is so far off in the ODI rankings.

In the last one year, Smith has featured in 10 away ODIs. In these, he has aggregated 297 runs at an average of 37.12 and a strike rate of 83.19. In the Champions Trophy game versus England and in the previous ODI versus India, he was guilty of getting off to a good start and then being dismissed, thereby hurting his team's chances.

Given that he is the mainstay of Australia's batting, the 28-year-old really needs to up his game in away ODIs to revive Australia's fortunes.