BCCI has approved Rajasthan Royals’s request to replace Steve Smith with Heinrich Klaasen in the team. Cricket Australia banned Smith from International cricket for one year, following his main role in ball tampering incident that took place during 3rd test against South Africa at Newlands. Later, BCCI also barred Smith and Warner to play in this edition of IPL.
“The wicket-keeper batsman was picked for Rs 50 lakh from the Registered and Available Player Pool (RAPP) list,” BCCI stated in a media release.
“I am thankful to the Rajasthan Royals for giving me this opportunity and making me part of the squad. It would be my first IPL and in fact my first ever visit to India so I am really excited to be teaming up and sharing the dressing room with some great names. I have made it my mission to ensure my performance makes a large impact for my team in the tournament,” said Klaasen in statement released by the Rajasthan Royals.
Klaasen made his ODI debut against India in February 18′, and he thoroughly impressed one and all with his aggressive style of batting. He played a cameo to win the pink ODI for the African team. The Titans star wicket-keeper batsman didn’t stop from here and played some blistering innings in the T20 format as well, scoring 92 runs in three matches. He was allready on the radar of IPL franchise by the way he dealt with the India spin twins Yuzvendra Chahal-Kuldeep Yadav.
Klaasen will be the third wicket-keeper batsman in the team after Jos Butler and Sanju Samson.
Royals will kickstart their campaign against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 9 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium lead by India’s ever-dependable Ajinkya Rahane.
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Rajasthan Royals squad: Ben Stokes, Jaydev Unadkat, Sanju Samson, Jofra Archer, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jos Buttler, Rahul Tripathi, D’Arcy Short, Ajinkya Rahane, Dhawal Kulkarni, Zahir Khan, Ben Laughlin, Stuart Binny, Dushmantha Chameera, Anureet Singh, Aryaman Vikram Birla, Midhun S, Shreyas Gopal, Prashant Chopra, Jatin Saxena, Ankit Sharma, Mahipal Lomror, Heinrich Klaasen
