Odean Smith is hoping for a handsome deal from one of the franchises this year. With his explosive batting and pace bowling rising in the game, West Indies Allrounder Odean Smith hopes significant from the IPL Mega auction.
Priced in the highest bid of Rs 2 crore for the IPL mega auction on February 12 and 13 in Bengaluru, Smith is expected to spark a bidding war among the franchises.“Quite excited going to the auction, I would say. If I get selected, that will be good. My hopes are high on getting selected,” said the 28-year-old Allrounder in a virtual media interaction after the second ODI in Ahmedabad.
Smith said he looks up to fellow Allrounder Andre Russell, a hit for two-time winner Kolkata Knight Riders. “I am influenced by Andre Russell. He plays a similar kind of cricket, both with the batting style and bowling. Watching him over the years, I’ve picked up a few in terms of his batting. ”
said Smith. Smith showed his tearaway pace bowling when he banished Rishab Pant and Virat Kohli in one over, setting India a target of 237 runs. Smith also batted at number 9 and scored 20 balls-24 runs for his team.
Smith is hoping to bring his consistency back for further ODI matches. “It’s about consistency. Generally, International cricket is not easy. In T20, you have just four overs to bowl here; you have to bowl ten overs, so you have to be consistent.” said Smith, who was in the Under-19 World Cup-winning squad in 2016.
Smith impressed as an allrounder, but it was a losing cause as India won the second ODI by 44 runs and took a straight lead of 2-0, which also meant that India won the three-match series against the West Indies. India scored 237 runs for their second ODI against West Indies, where Suryakumar scored 83ball-64, and KL Rahul contributed an excellent score of 48ball-49.
Prasidh Krishna weakened the West Indies batting by taking four wickets for India. Smith also took chances for his team and took two wickets for West Indies. Sharmarh brooks scored 44 runs for the West Indies, and Akeal Hosein scored 34 runs but still lost to India by 44 runs.
West Indies required 48 runs from their last six overs, but Smith was bowled out in the 45th after scoring 24 runs in 20 balls.Smith showed his batting skills in the lower order, but still, the score was not easy to chase for the last pair. India by 44 runs. India played dominated since the first ODI with the West Indies.
The Second ODI played against India was Smith’s fifth ODI game.
“I have a lot of work ahead of me in both the departments going forward. I’ve to do a lot more work on my batting. The task was not that difficult, I should have finished the chase with two good overs, so I have a lot of work to do and a lot of time to continue learning,” he concluded.
Published By: Jaspreet Singh
Edited By: Kritika Kashyap
