New Delhi: Rajasthan Royals (IPL) on Wednesday named Sanju Samson as the new captain for the Indian Premier League 2021 season. Australian batsman Steve Smith, who failed in both bat and captaincy, has not been named in the squad. Rajasthan Royals, including Smith, have removed 8 players from the team. Let us know that RR finished last in the 2020 season.
The list of foreign players includes Ben Stokes, Jose Butler, and Joffra Archer. All three English players performed well in the last tournament for the Royals. Jofra Archer was the top wicket-taker for the Royals with 20 wickets in the 2020 edition, while more recently Jose Butler and Ben Stokes also contributed significantly to the Rajasthan Royals victory. In addition to the English trio, David Miller and Andrew Tye have also been retained in the squad.
Players who got the place
Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Joffra Archer, Jose Butler, Ryan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Teotia, Mahipal Lomror, Karthik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Manan Vohoh, Manan Vohoh
Players removed
Steve Smith, Ankit Rajput, Oshen Thomas, Akash Singh, Varun Aaron, Tom Curren, Anirudh Joshi, Shashank Singh.
Meanwhile, the IPL 2021 auction is scheduled to be held in February and teams are already starting to name the players who will be retained this year, and who will be removed. However, there are some prominent names, which have been released by the squad. Once again the focus is on the youth, with teams keeping an eye on these players. One of them is 19-year-old fast bowler Mujtaba Yusuf of Kashmir, who was called for trial by Mumbai Indians after his brilliant performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Looking at Smith’s IPL career, he played 31 matches last season, scoring 311 runs with the help of 3 half-centuries, while in 2019, 319 runs in 12 matches. In the previous season, sandpaper did not play due to scandal. If seen, his performance in the last two seasons was not very effective and under his captaincy, the team could not impress either.
Let me tell you that before IPL 2018, Royals only retained Smith in the team and signed a deal of Rs 12.5 crore. He was also made captain but had to step down after a ball-tampering controversy in South Africa. Smith could not perform well in the recent series against Australia in India.