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Aakash Chopra-Steve Smith
Aakash Chopra has stated that Chennai Super Kings are making efforts to acquire batsman Steve Smith at the auction. There were several questions raised when the Royals made a bold decision of releasing their captain ahead of IPL 2021.
Smith had been a vital cog for RR over the years. He grabbed some impressive wins for the side. The 31-year-old was handed over the franchise's captaincy during the IPL 2015 season. He managed to lead the side to the playoffs that year.
The Royals made a comeback to the league after being banned for two seasons because of their involvement in the match-fixing scandal. The franchise showed faith in Steve Smith and announced him as captain ahead of the IPL 2018 season.
However, in the 2019 season, RR excluded Steve Smith from the side as Cricket Australia banned him for 12 months for his role in the Sandpapergate scandal against South Africa. Subsequently, the franchise decided not to play the 31-year-old in that season and appointed Ajinkya Rahane as their skipper. Last season, Steve Smith was not successful in leading the side to the IPL 2020 playoffs. The batsman scored only 311 runs in 14 games at an average of 25.91.
Chennai Super Kings are a better team this time: Aakash Chopra
CSK are looking for some quality players. The team has one available overseas slot because of the retirement of Shane Watson. Besides Smith, Aaron Finch, Jason Roy and Dawid Malan are the other top-order batsmen Chennai considers.
The 43-year-old concluded by mentioning that CSK are a better team and are likely to perform better than last year. Ruturaj Gaikwad's outgrowth as a dependable top-order batsman and Suresh Raina's comeback to the team will surely give the "Yellow Army" a more substantial look in the 14th edition of IPL.