West Indies medium pace bowling all-rounder Odean Smith was bought by Gujarat Titans for INR 50 Lakhs in the IPL 2023 mini-auctions held in Kochi on Friday, December 23. Smith was one of six players in Pool 2, designed for all-rounders, which included his West Indies teammate Jason Holder, England’s Ben Stokes and Sam Curran, Bangladesh star Shakib Al Hasan, Australia’s Cameron Green and Sikandar Raza from Zimbabwe.
Smith has represented West Indies in 24 T20Is since his debut in 2018 and five ODIs – all in 2022 – till date. He has picked up 24 wickets at an economy of 9.84 and amassed 162 runs at a strike rate of 139.65 in T20Is. Overall, he has taken 70 wickets and scored 485 runs at a strike rate of 139 from 66 appearances in all T20 cricket.
Smith, who was part of the winning West Indies U-19 team in the 2016 ICC Men’s U-19 World Cup, has been a much sought-after player in various franchise leagues across the globe, representing the Guyana Amazon Warriors, Jamaica Tallawahs, St Lucia Stars and Trinidad & Tobago in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) at home and Multan Sultans in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
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Odean Smith in IPL 2022
Smith was signed by Punjab Kings for a whopping INR 6 crore in the IPL 2022 mega auction last year, making him one of the most expensive signings in the competition. However, he had quite an underwhelming run, with 51 runs in 17 at a strike rate of 115.91 and six wickets from as many matches at an economy of 11.87.
He had a mixed IPL debut against Royal Challengers Bangalore, returning 0/52 in four overs with the ball, before helping the Kings chase down 206 with an over to spare with a blistering 25* off 8. He was in the waiting end of Andre Russell’s strike in his next outing, and later against Rahul Tewatia, who hit him for two back-to-back sixes to complete one of the most epic finishes in IPL history.
Smith redeemed himself with a match-winning 4/30 against Mumbai Indians, but didn’t have much of a role to play thereafter in the Kings’ sixth-placed finish in the competition.
