Steve Smith was banned for a Test and fined 100% of his match fees for admitting to tampering with the ball.

After stepping down from Australian captaincy for the third Test and copping a ban from a Test and 100% match fees fine, Steve Smith has also stepped down from captaincy of his IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals.

Ajinkya Rahane has been named the captain of RR for the IPL 2018. Ajinkya Rahane is the vice-captain of the Indian Test team and has previously captained India in Tests against Australia.

Steve Smith and opener Cameron Bancroft were charged by the ICC and Bancroft was given a 75% match fees fine and three demerit points. Bancroft was caught on camera using a yellow tape to tamper with the ball during third day’s play of the third Test against South Africa.

Later, Steve Smith admitted that it was done intentionally and was preplanned by the leadership group of the team, who then chose Bancroft to do the dirty deed. Australian media and Prime Minister reacted sharply to Smith and Australian team’s actions and called for Smith to step down from captaincy in full; something he refused to do during the press conference.

Rajasthan Royals will be making a comeback into the team after 2 years of suspension. They retained Steve Smith before the IPL 2018 auction and then used the RTM card to buy back Ajinkya Rahane. Rahane has been brilliant for Rajasthan Royals since 2012 and has scored a total of 3057 runs in 111 matches in IPL.