Meet Australia Star Who Replaced MS Dhoni As Captain In IPL, Was Banned From Playing Next Year

MS Dhoni has had a legendary IPL career since his IPL debut in 2008 and he is set to play another season in 2025. Dhoni was retained in the uncapped category by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for Rs 4 crore. Dhoni is a five-time IPL-winning captain. Before IPL2024, he decided to leave the captaincy and hand it over to Ruturaj Gaikwad.It was the second time when Dhoni left captaincy. Before IPL 2022, Dhoni handed over the captaincy to Ravindra Jadeja but returned as captain after the team's below-par form. Dhoni could have captained CSK till he he wanted but he decided to groom Ruturaj after IPL 2023.CSK have always backed Dhoni and he is likely to stay with them even after he retires. But that wasn't the case at Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS). Dhoni joined RPS for 2 years in 2016 and took over as the captain.Dhoni-led RPS struggled in IPL 2016 and finished at the last spot in the points table. The RPS management took a bold call to replace Dhoni with Steve Smith. The Australia star created history by becoming the first-ever captain to lead Dhoni in the T20 league.Smith-led RPS made it to the final of IPL 2017, where they lost to Mumbai Indians. Smith returned to Rajasthan Royals (RR) for IPL 2018 as their captain but he was banned.Cricket Australia (CA) banned Smith for a year due to ball-tampering during the South Africa tour. The BCCI also decided against allowing Smith and David Warner in IPL 2018. They returned to the T20 league in 2019.Smith captained RR in IPL 2019 and 2020 while he played for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2021. He hasn't fetched a bid in since the 2022 mega-auction.Smith has been among Australia's best batters in Test cricket. The former Aussie captain has 9809 runs in 112 Tests. He is close to breaching the 10000-run mark. Smith has scored 5662 runs in ODIs and 1094 runs in T20Is.Smith is 35 and can play international cricket for another 4-5 years. Interestingly, he started his career as a specialist leg-spinner who could bat but he changed his role after his debut and hardly bowls in international cricket. Smith has only scalped 64 wickets for Australia.