Rajasthan Royals to part ways with Steve Smith in upcoming IPL auctions: Reports

Indian Premier League franchise Rajasthan Royals have decided to part ways with their skipper Steve Smith and will not be retaining the Aussie in the upcoming auctions. The Royals will decide it shortly as the franchise will be releasing the list of retained players on January 20. 

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Smith started the 2020 season with a bang after scoring fifties against CSK and KXIP and leading his team to victory. However, there was a steep downfall in Smith's form as he ended the IPL season with just 311 runs with an average and strike-rate of 25.91 and 131.22 respectively. Royals ended at the bottom of the table. 

As per reports in ESPNcricinfo, the franchise management asked the Royals to be more consistent in contention for the playoffs. The Royals' season review highlighted Smith's inconsistency as both a player and captain. 

In 2018 auctions, Royals retained the Australian for a mammoth 12.5 crores rupees ($1.95 million). Smith was appointed as the skipper but was forced to step down due to the sandpaper scandal. But he was finally appointed as the captain in 2019 after Ajinkya Rahane was sacked. 

Smith's sacking leaves the captain's spot vacant. Sanju Samson could fill up the spot after being consistently good with the team in the previous editions. Samson recently led Kerala in their first match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy.