Steven Smith who is back in Rajasthan Royals Squad for IPL 2019 will not be leading the side. Rajasthan Royals in the previous IPL season has appointed Steven Smith as the captain but have to dismiss him from the captaincy due to the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.

In March 2018, Cricket Australia imposed a one-year international ban on Australia National Cricket Team Captain Steve Smith and Vice-captain David while Cameron Bancroft was suspended for nine months.

So for IPL 2018, Rajasthan Royals after removing Steven Smith from captaincy has appointed Ajinkya Rahane as the new captain of RR. But as Steve Smith is back but, Rajasthan Royals will not restore captaincy to him.

The first reason is a fact that Cricket Australia had banned Steven Smith from captaincy for two years. So he can resume back his captaincy in the year 2020 and no before that. Also, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has not allowed Steve Smith and David Warner to play IPL even though they were being allowed by Cricket Australia to play IPL.

So BCCI might stay on the same rules and ask the IPL Franchises not to name these players as captains. Steve Smith represent Rajasthan Royals and David Warner represent Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2019.

Another reason why Steven Smith is not the captain of Rajasthan Royals is that he will not be playing full IPL 2019. Though IPL is set to begin from 29 March, but if it starts before the last week of March then Smith will leave IPL if he will be named in ODI squad for World Cup 2019.

So now for the upcoming IPL season, Ajinkya Rahane will lead the Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad will not change its captain from Kane Williamson who leads the team in the previous season to finals. Also, he is available for the full season, unlike David Warner.

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