Steve Smith will be captaining the Rajasthan Royals (RR) team in their IPL 2020 opening match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), which will be played in Sharjah on September 22. CSK have already defeated MI in their first match in Abu Dhabi.
Smith said that his team is looking forward to putting on a good show in their opening match and he also talked about his wellbeing, given that he missed the ODI series against England after being hit on the head during nets.
“Yeah obviously missed the last three ODIs in England. Been in Dubai for a couple of days now with some good rest and then got into a bit of running. Yesterday I did a bit of zig-zag running, which is part of the protocols to pass to get back to play and today I'll have a hit in the nets. Hopefully, pull up well from the hit and be good to play tomorrow," Smith said in a media release.
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Smith will be leading a side full of youngsters and some experienced players against CSK in Sharjah. He also talked about the challenge of facing a team like CSK and MI in the upcoming matches.
“Chennai and Mumbai both have been two solid teams for a long time now. We obviously watched a bit of the game the other night, the Super Kings played really well to get over the line in the end. Hopefully, we can put on a good show and get our campaign off to a good start," he added.
Talking about the RR players’ training in UAE, Smith said, "The guys have been here for a month now, and from all reports, the training's been magnificent. It's been good to catch up with both the old and the new Royals, we're in a good place and have got an outstanding squad this year, really strong, and we're ready to get going.”
Rajasthan head coach Andrew McDonald was ecstatic to have Steve Smith in the team, given that RR will be missing Jos Buttler for the first match, who is still in quarantine having brought his family along to UAE.
“Fantastic news that Steve is available. It's fantastic especially on the back of some setbacks back in the UK. It's obviously great to have your skipper available for the first game as I've said before we are in really good hands. In terms of the rest of the squad, we couldn't be happier with their preparation. We've got what we needed, having been here nice and early to get our preparation going on the back of the long lay-off," McDonald said.
McDonald also gave a brief about the team’s preparations for the IPL 2020 and especially for their opening match against MS Dhoni’s CSK.
"We have got the bases covered and have some really good depth in the squad and really looking forward to seeing what it looks like in a real competitive match against CSK. They had a fantastic first game, they're one game into the tournament which is a slight advantage when you come out against the team that's already played and performed.”
“So, we'll definitely have our work cut out and really looking forward to what our guys can bring to the table and we're really excited about what the journey presents," he added.
(ANI inputs)
