It seems like Rajasthan Royals have zeroed in on the replacement for Steve Smith- South Africa's Heinrich Klassen. According to TOI, Rajasthan Royals have already sent a request for the South African to the BCCI.
“Klaasen is an amazing player of spin. And he has a vast array of shots, which tempted us to go for him. He plays the reverse sweep very well, something that will be quite useful in the IPL,” the report quoted Zubin Bharucha, Rajasthan Royals’ head of cricket as saying.
“Our aim was to get someone who can play spin well because we are pretty sure that spinners will have a big role to play during the IPL,” Bharucha was quoted as saying.
The report quoting top sources in BCCI said that Sunrisers Hyderbad have shown interest to sign Sri Lankan cricketer Kusal Perera as David Warner's replacement.
Earlier, Rajasthan Royals executive chairman Ranjit Barthakur has confirmed that RR has sought a replacement from BCCI.
“We are in a hunt for his replacement and you will get to know about it in the next two days. The matter is with BCCI and it will be sub judice to tell exactly, but already there is a list of two persons. One is from United Kingdom and the other is from South Africa.” He had not confirmed the names but said that it would be neither Joe Root or Ashim Amla.
According to the TOI report, it was the way Klaasen handled spinners Yazuvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav during India's tour of South Africa that had attracted the attention of the Royals.
Klaasen wasn’t in the 578 list of players that went under the hammer, but he was a part of the extended list.
Smith and Warner were banned for one year by Cricket Australia on Wednesday for ball tampering during their South African series. Subsequently, they are also banned from playing in IPL 2018.
The request for replacement player will now go to the IPL management for further ratification before the players are officially named for their respective squad. Meanwhile, Kolkata Knight Riders will also be looking to replace injured Mitchell Starc.
