Steve Smith hits fifty in 1st ever innings as opener in Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings

Rajasthan Royals skipper Steve Smith, who is regarded as one of the best batsman in the world, and is a given for the No. 3 position in any team that he plays in, came out as an opener for the first time on Tuesday.

Having been out of his last T20 series in England due to concussion-related issues, there were doubts on Steve Smith’s participation until two days ago.

But on Monday, Rajasthan Royals coach Andrew McDonald cleared the air saying that Smith was clear to play in the team’s opener.

At that point, no one would have guessed that Steve Smith could come out to open the innings against the Chennai Super Kings.

With the young batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal already there for



the position, and the likes of Robin Uthappa there, who had played that role of the opener very successful in his previous team Kolkata Knight Riders, it was unlikely that there would be someone else coming out to open the innings.

But the skipper decided to lead the team from the front (literally) and walked down the Sharjah pavilion with Jaiswal.

It was the first time in his career that Steve Smith had come out to open the innings, after having played 496 matches.

The Australian anchored the Rajasthan Royals innings, with other batsman like Sanju Samson coming in and immediately getting involved in slogging the bowlers. Samson knocked the bowlers around for 9 sixes in his brief innings of 74 off 32 balls.