IPL 2021 Auction: Delhi Capitals sign Steve Smith for budget-friendly price of INR 220 lakh

Delhi Capitals (DC) signed former Australian skipper Steven Smith for INR 2.2 crore in the Indian Premier League (IPL) mini-player auction in Chennai on Thursday.

Smith, who was released by Rajasthan Royals (RR) ahead of IPL 2021, was expected to have a fierce bidding war at the player auction but the Delhi side hijacked the player with almost no trouble.

Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) kickstarted the bidding process for former RR captain at the auction in Chennai before DC sealed the deal for a budget-friendly price of INR 220 lakh.

Soon after that, RR congratulated DC for acquiring Smith ahead of the 14th edition of IPL.

Under Shreyas Iyer's captaincy, DC finished third in the 2019 IPL season before ending as runner's up the following season. In their first-ever IPL final, DC met the most successful side in the tournament Mumbai Indians (MI) as the Men in Blue went on to claim their fifth title.

Smith, who first joined RR in 2014, scored 1,070 runs in 43 innings at an average of 30.57. Last year, not only did Smith had a poor tournament on the personal level as he scored only 311 runs in 14 matches but also saw his side finish at the bottom of the IPL 2020 table.

The IPL 2021 mini-auction went underway with the formal speech of Brijesh Patel. He announced that VIVO is back as title sponsors and the upcoming edition will be known as VIVO IPL. The former Indian cricketer also made a special mention to the inspiring journey of T Natarajan who went on to play all three formats for India during the Australia tour, after impressing at the IPL last season in the UAE, where he had picked up 16 wickets in as many games for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).