We made it to IPL 2017 final because of MS Dhoni and not Steve Smith, says Rajat Bhatia

Jaipur, March 31: Domestic cricket stalwart Rajat Bhatia has had some good years of IPL experience for multiple franchises under several captains. With over 100 first-class matches under his belt, the all-rounder played 95 IPL matches and picked up 71 wickets.

Bhatia, who was known for bowling slow, slower and slowest deliveries in the domestic circuit as well as in the IPL, was part of the Rising Pune Supergiant franchise in 2017 which made it to the IPL final. He was a part of the MRF Pace Foundation and started his first-class domestic cricket career with Tamil Nadu, before returning to his home state team, Delhi. He was a very sought after all-rounder in the IPL and plied his trade for multiple teams.

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The 41-year-old cricketer-turned-commentator, on the inaugural episode of SportsTiger's new interview series - Interact. Personal. Laugh & Life (IPLL), shared his thoughts on the IPL and explained that the franchises have their own respective thought processes when it comes to selecting a captain.

Having had the experience of playing under multiple captains, he shared his experience of playing under the captaincy of Delhi teammates Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag in the IPL.

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"I really enjoyed playing under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir, however, during his third year for Delhi Daredevils, there was a lack of maturity in his captaincy, maybe because it was his first-ever role as a captain in the IPL and there were also a lot of changes made. But when we both moved to KKR and he became the captain, I had a doubt that whether I'll be able to enjoy under his captaincy or not, but there is a huge advantage if you have a captain from the same state because they know what is required.

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"Gautam knew about that and so did Virender Sehwag because I played under his captaincy in Delhi Daredevils for 2 years. When Gautam was there as the captain of KKR, he used to prefer me in his playing 11 and made me play consistently. He always used to tell me that he believed in me and knew how to use me and that's why I enjoyed playing under him," Bhatia said.

Rajat further spoke about how every IPL franchise has their own say while choosing a captain and how they have trust towards a known name and hence end up choosing an international player instead of a local player. He however disagrees with the idea and said, "I have never been in favour of this. I think they don't know much about the domestic cricketers."

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Bhatia who had played for the Rising Pune Supergiant (now defunct) also spoke about the captaincy of former Australia captain Steve Smith. After the first season for the newly-launched franchise under MS Dhoni ended up in disappointment, the owners made the Aussie swashbuckler the captain in IPL 2017.

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Talking about Smith's captaincy, Bhatia told SportsTiger, "You can never compare (MS) Dhoni with Steve Smith. If we look at all the 10 franchises, Smith doesn't even feature in top 10 captains for me."

"I was surprised that Rajasthan Royals trusted him with the leadership role," he added. He went on to say that Smith had no idea about captaincy and he did not know which bowler to bring in under crucial situation and who to trust for the death overs.

Talking about RPS making it to the IPL 2017 final, Bhatia said, "We made it to IPL 2017 final because of Dhoni and not Steve Smith."

RPS was launched by the IPL Governing Council for a period of two years when the Supreme Court suspended MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings for two years over the franchise's involvement in the IPL scandal.