Having won only two in their first eight games, Rajasthan Royals were visibly going through a tough time on the pitch in the 12th edition of the Indian Premier League.
And on Saturday, 20 April, just before their game against Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals’ management decided to name Steve Smith as the captain for the remainder of the season.
He replaced Ajinkya Rahane, who hadn’t really been having a great season – neither with the bat nor his team’s results – not giving much to defend his captaincy skills. In nine games for RR, the 30-year old Rahane has scored 213 runs with just a single half-century.
The cricket fraternity and fans voiced their opinion on Smith being handed over captaincy in place of Rahane.
Steve Smith, who recently made a comeback after serving a one year ban post the ball tampering saga has had prior captaincy experience in IPL.
The Australian was given captaincy of Rajasthan Royals in the latter half of the 2015 season. He was then made the captain of Rising Pune Supergiants in 2017, when they managed to reach the IPL finals. Smith managed to score 472 runs that season in 15 games.
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