IPL 2018: Rajasthan Royals confirm Steve Smith's replacement

Rajasthan Royals have acquired the duties of South African wicketkeeper-batsman Heinrich Klaasen as a replacement for Steve Smith. He was picked for INR 50 lakh from the Registered and Available Player Pool (RAPP) list.

Klaasen was the chief destructor in the recently concluded limited-overs series against India. He scored a total of 110 runs in 4 ODIs and smashed 92 runs in three-match T20I series against the sub-continent side. He is currently averaging above 30 in both the formats. With this pick, RR has another explosive batsman in their armoury.

RR head of cricket reacts

Speaking about the replacement, Rajasthan Royals‘ head of cricket Zubin Bharucha termed Klaasen as ‘Amazing player of spin’, “Our aim was to get someone who can play spin well because we are pretty sure that spinners will have a big role to play during the IPL,” Bharucha told to Times of India. Klaasen is an amazing player of spin. And he has a vast array of shots, which tempted us to go for him. He plays the reverse sweep very well, something that will be quite useful in the IPL,” he further added.

Recently, Cricket Australia banned the trio of David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft for their involvement in the shameful ball-tampering act with the help of sandpaper. They were subsequently banned by the BCCI from IPL 2018 season. Both RR & SRH sides were in a sort of bother after the ban. However, SRH came up with Alex Hales as David Warner’s replacement and announced Kane Williamson as their new skipper.

Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad play against each other on 9th April, Monday at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. Both the new-comers have a good chance of playing the upcoming game on Monday.

Follow-up on this ‘cricketing story‘ and a lot more on CricTracker.com