Du Plessis recalls Dhoni's removal as RPS captain, says Smith handled situation well

NEW DELHI: Faf du Plessis recalled the shock surrounding MS Dhoni's removal as Rising Pune Supergiants captain after the 2016 IPL season, saying Steve Smith handled the difficult situation well and led the team to the final in his first season as skipper.

Speaking on Cricinfo's show 'Cricketers on Cricketers', former South Africa skipper du Plessis said the decision to replace Dhoni, one of the most successful captains in the tournament's history, left everyone surprised.

"MS Dhoni was removed as captain of Rising Pune Supergiants after the end of the 2016 IPL season, and that's the biggest move you can make in a tournament of that stature. We hadn't won a couple of games, and the owner at the time made the decision to change the captain. Everyone was shocked after that call," du Plessis said.

"MS Dhoni as captain was gone, and Steve Smith was the new captain. That was pretty early on in his leadership career. He wasn't experienced, but he did a good job."

Du Plessis said Smith faced a particularly challenging situation with Dhoni continuing to be part of the team after losing the captaincy.

"It was tough having MS Dhoni as your number two there, especially after he'd just been removed as captain. Smith led the team to the final, and we lost that final, which we should have won. We were that close" he said.

"Winning that final would have made Smith an IPL-winning captain in just one season of captaincy. That says a lot about him."

Former Australia opener Aaron Finch recalled Smith's transformation from a leg-spin all-rounder into one of the finest batters in the world.

"Steve Smith went from being touted as Shane Warne’s replacement, starting at eight in the batting order, bowling a few overs of leg spin, getting the odd runs as the finisher. Then something changed overnight. He turned into this absolute gun of a batter that took the world by storm," Finch said in the same show.

"He was always a handsy (good with wrists) player with big movements, moving his feet a lot. Then he simplified that and everything clicked."

Finch said Smith's rise was particularly remarkable because he moved from being viewed as a bowling all-rounder to becoming a mainstay in Australia's top order.

"All the talk initially about him was a bowling all-rounder who's ready to become the next big thing in Australian cricket, but then something clicked with his batting in Test cricket and he worked it out," he said.

"The ability to go from number six and five for so long and then slip into number four in the batting order was extraordinary. He's the best player I've ever played with by a mile."

Reflecting on Smith's return to international cricket after the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, Finch said the absence of captaincy allowed him to focus more fully on his own game.

"After the 2018 incident, coming back into the international setup, Steve Smith was more relaxed as a player because he didn't have the captaincy for obvious reasons," he said.

"As captain, so much of your time goes into things away from your own game. And then getting the amount of work he wanted done put extra pressure on him mentally, because you need to get this much work done to feel ready to go, but you've still got to worry about everybody else."

"So finding that balance, not having that captaincy pressure post 2018 was probably a weight off his shoulders because he sits there and goes, now I can just worry about myself."