Rajasthan Royals fans get emotional, might change loyalties after Steve Smith's release

Australia’s batting star Steve Smith was recently excluded from the Rajasthan Royals squad for the upcoming Indian Premier League 2021 (IPL 2021) season. Ahead of the IPL 2021 auction, the franchise listed out their released and retained players on Wednesday, January 20. Steve Smith, who led Rajasthan Royals in the previous two editions of the tournament, will be replaced by Sanju Samson as their new captain.

Rajasthan Royals tribute for Steve Smith

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Rajasthan Royals legend Steve Smith gets excluded, fans get emotional

Steve Smith made his debut for Rajasthan Royals back in 2014. Since then, he has represented the franchise in 50 matches and has provided some much-needed stability with the bat in their middle-order. Smith’s departure from the franchise has evoked some emotional responses from fans of the cricketer, with several of them pledging their loyalties for a different franchise already.

While some fans are looking to shift their loyalties, others have seemingly accepted the truth and have already offered their farewells for the decorated cricketer. Here is a look at some of the fans reacting to Rajasthan Royals’ decision of parting ways with Steve Smith.

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Rajasthan Royals IPL 2021 list of released players

Steve Smith is not the only player to be released by the Rajasthan franchise ahead of the IPL 2021 auction. The franchise has also parted ways with West Indies’ Oshane Thomas, England’s Tom Curran, India’s Varun Aaron, Ankit Rajpoot, Shashank Singh and Akash Singh. On Thursday, January 21, the social media accounts of Rajasthan Royals shared a two-minute video that paid a tribute to their outbound cricketers. Here is a look at the video as released by the franchise.

Rajasthan Royals squad 2021

Jos Buttler, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer among others are those who retained their spots for the upcoming IPL 2021 season. They will play under the leadership of newly-appointed captain Sanju Samson, who has been one of their leading run-scorers in the past few years. Here is a look at the entire Rajasthan Royals squad 2021, which includes 17 cricketers they retained from their previous edition’s squad.

Retained & revealed. ✅

From 2020 to 2021, these Royals are going nowhere. 😍#HallaBol | #RoyalsFamily | #IPL2021 | #IPLRetention pic.twitter.com/fdGwsMAY4D

— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) January 20, 2021

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Image source: IPLT20.COM