Melbourne, Dec 25 : Steve Smith showed sympathy toward Ben Stokes-led England as the team endured criticism following their early Ashes series defeat to Australia. England suffered losses in the first three Tests, and the hosts took an unassailable 3-0 lead upon winning the recent Adelaide Test.

Smith will rejoin the Australian team for the Boxing Day Test and continue as stand-in captain in place of Pat Cummins after recovering from an inner-ear issue. With Australia already having secured the urn and now aiming for a clean sweep in the Ashes, Smith was asked if he felt any sympathy for the English team, which is under heavy scrutiny.

Smith, who was stripped of the Australian captaincy and received a year-long suspension following the Sandpaper-gate scandal in South Africa, is familiar with the pressures of being in the spotlight and expressed empathyfor England's current situation.

â??When youâ??re losing, the spotlight is always on you and things can get spoken about and get blown up pretty heavily. So â?¦ I feel for them, in a way. It can be tricky. Youâ??re in a country where you know you can go out and about and enjoy yourselves, and with big breaks, you know, youâ??ve got to experience the country that youâ??re in as well. And they had a pretty big break in between,â?? Smith told reporters at the MCG on Christmas Day.

The focus has shifted from Englandâ??s short preparation for the series to allegations that several team members overindulged during a break in Noosa between the Brisbane and Adelaide Tests. Smith stated he has no problem with the team taking a break between matches and believes it can serve as a reset for teams under pressure or not at their best.

"Sometimes I think youâ??ve just got to â?? and I heard a few of the comments â?? but you have got to get away from the game and try and put it out of your mind and just relax for a little bit too. And I can see thatâ??s the kind of path that they wanted to go down and I think itâ??s fair enough.

"I can't really comment more than that on how theyâ??re feeling or how theyâ??re going about things but, yeah, I certainly believe that when youâ??ve lost two Test matches, and youâ??ve got such a long break, sometimes you just need to get away from the game and switch off entirely," he said.

/IANS