5 Australians who turned out to be successful captains in the Indian Premier League

#4. Steve Smith

Smith almost pulled off a win in the 2017 final

The current Australian skipper started his IPL career playing for the Pune Warriors India as more of a leg spinning all rounder. Later on he played as a proper batsman for few other IPL franchises.

In IPL 2015, Shane Watson was the captain in the initial stages of the tournament, but Smith took over from him in the latter stages of the tournament. He ensured that the Royals reached the Play offs by beating the defending champions KKR in a virtual Quarter Final at Brabourne, Mumbai. They lost to RCB in the eliminator, but overall Smith didn't have a bad start as captain.

After RR was banned for two years, Smith moved to the new franchise RPS and lead the side in the year 2017. He had a terrific season but lost in the finals by just one run. This was surely a tough pill to swallow for Smith and his boys, but overall they had a good season winning 9 out of 14 games in the league stages, and they also had a nod over the Mumbai Indians who dominated the entire season, beating them 3 out of 4 times.

After the return of the Rajasthan Royals this year, he was retained by the side, and will surely captain the side in 2018. Hopefully he'll have a good time working with their newly appointed mentor Shane Warne.