Rajasthan Royals’ captain Ajinkya Rahane is set to move to Delhi Capitals, a report in Hindustan Times suggests. Rahane had joined Rajasthan Royals way back in 2011 and remained to be one of the mainstays for the team. He was retained by the franchise at IPL 2018 auction for Rs 4 Crore by the use of Right to Match card.
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In the absence of Steven Smith for IPL 2018, he also led the team to playoffs stage. He continued to hold the leadership job for IPL 2019 but was replaced mid-season.
Since Smith returned to Australia to prepare for World Cup 2019, Rahane was back as captain. The report of Rahane moving away from Rajasthan does come as a surprise. The report also adds that Delhi Capitals will trade two players in return. It remains to be seen which two players will move to Rajasthan for Rahane.
The last date to announce the list of released and traded players is November 14 and the franchise has to confirm the trading of Rahane today.
In IPL 2019, Rahane scored 393 runs with a strike-rate of 137.89. In total, he has played 140 IPL matches so far in which he has 3820 runs at 32.93 with a strike-rate of 121.92. Rahane had started his IPL career with Mumbai Indians. In IPL 2016 and 2017, the team India’s vice-captain played for Rising Pune Supergiant.
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Rahane will be the second player to be acquired by Delhi Capitals in trade. Last week, they acquired the services of Kings XI Punjab’s captain R Ashwin and traded Jagadeesha Suchith. The franchise, yesterday, traded Trent Boult to Mumbai Indians.
In another update, a report in Mumbai Mirror has suggested that Chennai Super Kings have released Sam Billings. The presence of MS Dhoni saw England’s T20I vice-captain play just one match in IPL 2019. He also returned home early to prepare for the Ireland series.