Listen to this article

Former Australian cricket team’s captain Steve Smith recently led his side the Washington Freedom to their maiden Major League Cricket (MLC) title, beating the San Francisco Unicorns in the final match to win the coveted MLC 2024 Trophy. Steve Smith played a key role for his team as a captain and batter.

Although Steve Smith is not very much known for his T20 game, Smith proved everyone wrong in the MLC. There were much confusion among the cricket enthusiasts as to why the Ricky Ponting led side opted to bring Steve Smith into the fold that included players like Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell etc.

But Steve Smith proved all his doubters wrong. The Washington Freedom finished at the top of the table with 5 wins and 1 loss from their 7 matches. The 35-years-old Steve Smith led side dominated the playoffs, beating the San Francisco Unicorns in the Qualifier and the Final by 7 wickets and 96 runs respectively.

Not only did Steve Smith led his side really well, he contributed significantly with the bat as well. Smith scored 336 runs from 9 innings with a strike rate of 148.67 and average of 56. With this brilliant performance from Smith, he certainly has managed to turn some IPL teams’ attention towards himself, especially some teams who maybe looking for a new captain in the upcoming IPL 2025 Mega Auction later this year. In this article, we take a look at _ teams who maybe to willing to sign Steve Smith as captain for IPL 2025.

Punjab Kings

An Australian captain and Punjab Kings is a good combination. Punjab Kings (Formerly Kings XI Punjab) reached their last IPL final way back in the year 2014, which unfortunately they lost to Kolkata Knight Riders. They had an Australian George Bailey as their captain. Since then, Glenn Maxwell has been the other Aussie to captain Punjab, but they never reached the previous heights again. The Kings recently had Shikhar Dhawan and Sam Curran as captain in IPL 2024 and it seems they will be looking for a captain in the IPL 2025 Mega Auction. In that case, Steve Smith can be an option Punjab Kings may go after. Smith would easily be able to give them 2 seasons atleast as captain.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have had the privilege of having some really great captains over the years in the IPL, the likes of Virat Kohli and current Faf du Plessis. However, there might be some debate of captaincy options at RCB as their current captain Faf du Plessis is currently 40-years-old. In that case, Steve Smith would be a good short-term captaincy option for them to prepare their next captain as Smith would easily be able to give 2 season.

Lucknow Super Giants

Steve Smith already has a relationship with the Super Giants. Steve Smith was with the in the IPL in 2016 and 2017, when they joined the league in place of CSK and Rajasthan, where he replaced MS Dhoni as the captain of the team and led his side to the final, which unfortunately they lost against Mumbai Indians by 1 run. Since then, Smith only featured in the 2021 IPL season for Delhi Capitals and never found a place again. Lucknow Super Giants have the same owners as Pune Supergiant and with team’s captain KL Rahul likely to leave, the management might turn to their former leader Steve Smith.

Share this post!