IPL 2020: Rating the captains of all teams in the league stage

7. Steven Smith- 6/10

A strong showing in the IPL could’ve helped ‘Smudge’ make a strong case for resuming his role in Australia’s leadership group. Sadly, though, if anything, Smith’s performances this season have dropped him further down the pecking order.

It was a wildly inconsistent journey for the world’s top-ranked Test batsman. The majority of his 311 runs came as an opener for the Rajasthan Royals (RR), yet he consciously made the decision to demote himself down the order just to accommodate other top-order batters.

Not just himself, though, under Smith’s leadership, the team were hardly ever able to settle on one fixed hierarchy of batters. In the process, several players had to bat out of position, which clearly took a toll on their confidence.

On the bowling front too, Smith was culpable of not exploring all his available options. The likes of Akash Singh, Oshane Thomas, and Mayank Markande were relegated to bench-warming duties for the entire season, while Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat and Varun Aaron’s run-leaking issues got conveniently overlooked.

Jofra Archer and Rahul Tewatia’s MVP worthy performances played a certain face-saving role in RR’s wooden spoon campaign, which has clearly compounded the pressure on Smith for the next season. He ends the season rated 6 for his captaincy.