Indian Premier League franchise Delhi Capitals picked Australian star batsman Steve Smith for Rs 2.2 crore at the IPL 2021 auction in Chennai on Thursday. However, DC co-owner Parth Jindal could not hide his surprise that the former Rajasthan Royals captain went “only for Rs 2.2 crore”.
Jindal feels that Smith will add a lot to their squad, but expressed his “shock” over the Australian being sold for a little over his base price of Rs 2 crore.
“It was just incredible to get Steve Smith. We are shocked about how he went only for Rs 2.2 crore, but to get a player of the calibre of Steve Smith, it’s going to add a lot to our squad, a lot to our balance. His leadership, his batting, his experience, everything. Everyone associated with Delhi is just thrilled,” Jindal said.
“We discussed Smith’s name before the auction and we thought that he would go for much higher, so we had thought that if an opportunity arises, we will go for him, but we never anticipated actually getting him,” he added.
Smith represented Rajasthan Royals in the two previous editions of the IPL. He has scored 2,333 runs in 95 matches at an average of 35.34 in his IPL career. However, the 31-year-old was released by RR following a forgettable outing last season.
The Delhi-based team acquired Smith along with other overseas players, including England’s Tom Curran and Sam Billings, who were bought for Rs 5.25 crore and Rs 2 crore respectively.
Among domestic players, Lukman Meriwala, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, and Manimaran Siddharth are the new additions in the Delhi Capitals squad. The four players were bought for their base price of Rs 20 lakh.
“I think it’s a very exciting squad yet again. Meriwala has been doing really well in the domestic tournaments and he’s an Indian left-arm quick which we didn’t have in our squad last year.
“He gives us an added variation and Tom Curran has the cutters, the slower ones, the quick ones and he’s very good with the bat as well. So he gives that added balance to the squad.”
List of players acquired by Delhi Capitals: Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Tom Curran, Sam Billings, Lukman Meriwala, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod and Manimaran Siddharth.
List of players retained by Delhi Capitals: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Lalit Yadav, Avesh Khan, Praveen Dubey, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Woakes.
