IPL 2021: Aakash Chopra suggests Chennai to buy Australian batting mainstay Steve Smith

Cricket pundit Aakash Chopra reckons that the former champions Chennai can rope in Steve Smith to strengthen their batting unit in the upcoming IPL 2021. The Australian batting mainstay was released by the 2008 winners Rajasthan last Wednesday. 

Smith, who had captained Rajasthan last season could not do anything exceptional as it bagged the wooden spoon. He had a decent yet not so impactful outing with the bat as well by managing to score 311 runs in all the 14 matches that he got to feature in.

'Try to acquire Steve Smith': Aakash Chopra

In a video shared on his official YouTube channel, Chopra went on to say that the Chennai franchise has a total of seven slots available (after releasing some players last week) and when the former Indian Test opener had made Chennai (as a part of his prediction/ analysis), he had to open with Ambati Rayudu and Ruturaj Gaikwad who were followed by the likes of Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo, Karn Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, and Shardul Thakur/Deepak Chahar.

The ex-Delhi cricketer then mentioned that the three-time IPL winners can actually play with eight Indians as well but will want to play with just seven. Furthermore, the stylish cricket pundit felt that they need an overseas opener or top-order batsman and Steven Smith was one of the names that he had in mind.

“The other option is they could try to acquire Steve Smith. They can go for one out of Finch or Roy. So they will have these 3-4 options. David Malan is another option but Dhoni’s track record says that he goes for tried and tested players. So, I am going with Maxwell, Smith, Finch, or Roy,” the cricketer-turned-commentator/analyst added.

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Chennai retain most of their players

Despite having a dismal season in 2020, the franchise has retained most of its players including Ambati Rayadu, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir, Dwayne Bravo, and Deepak Chahar. The squad will be led by MS Dhoni as in the previous editions of the IPL so far. 
The franchise has also retained young Ruturaj Gaikwad, who made an impact in the last leg of the tournament in 2020, with some brilliant innings as he opened the batting for the team. Ace all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran along with Mitchel Santner have also been retained by the franchise.

On the other hand, Kedar Jadhav, Piyush Chawla, and Murali Vijay have been released in a bid to increase the franchise's purse amount for the mini-auction. 

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Chennai welcome Robin Uthappa onboard

Just a day after the franchises' submitted their players' retention list to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the MS Dhoni-led side announced their first acquiring of the trading window which has been opened up until February 4. The three-time winners acquired the services of veteran wicket-keeper batsman Robin Uthappa from Rajasthan in an all-cash deal which was officially confirmed by the Chennai franchise last Thursday. The move comes despite the team's criticism of housing several senior players, a factor that contributed to its dismal performance in IPL 2020. 

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