Rajasthan Royals names Sanju Samson as Captain, Smith released among others

Sanju Samson as New RR Captain: The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals (RR) has released its skipper and Australia star batsman Steven Smith and names Sanju Samson as their new Captain. The rookie batsman has taken the captaincy from Aussie Smith and to face the new challenges in IPL 2021. There were speculations that the franchise could part ways with their head coach Andrew McDonald, but the Aussie still continues as their head coach. 

With Steve Smith's release, the franchise is eyeing an Indian player who could fulfill his requirements in the upcoming much-anticipated IPL 2021. The former Australian captain Steve Smith took charge from Ajinkya Rahane in the middle of the season in 2019 but failed to live up to his expectations and scored just 311 runs from 14 matches.

"His contract expired in 2020 and we have decided not to renew it. Steve has had a huge contribution but we had to take a call after much deliberation," the official said.

A new chapter begins now. 🚨

Say hello to your Royals captain. #SkipperSanju | #HallaBol | #IPL2021 | #IPLRetention | @IamSanjuSamson pic.twitter.com/pukyEiyb1B

— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) January 20, 2021

RR Released Players: Steven Smith, Ankit Rajpoot, Oshane Thomas, Varun Aaron, Tom Curran, Anirudha Joshi, Akash Singh, and Shashank Singh

Players Retained: Sanju Samson (Captain)*, Manan Vohra, David Miller, Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Robin Uthappa, Anuj Rawat, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Riyan Parag, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Shreyas Gopal, Mayank Markande