The Washington Freedom of Major League Cricket (MLC) have announced that renowned Australian hitter Steve Smith will captain the team for the next MLC season. Smith will be leading an MLC team for the first time. He has guided Australia to victories in 21 Test matches, 30 ODI matches, and four T20I matches.
The Washington Freedom made it to the playoffs when the MLC debuted in the USA in 2023, but they were defeated by MI New York, the league’s first champions.
It was anticipated that Freedom will appoint the seasoned hitter as their captain for the forthcoming tournament season following the high-profile signing of Steve Smith. Not long after the franchise started using X (previously known as Twitter), the news was verified.
Freedom tweeted, “Oh Captain, Our Captain, Smudge is all set to lead the Freedom squad for #MLC2024.”
𝘖𝘩 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 🫡
𝐒𝐦𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞 is all set to lead the Freedom squad for #MLC2024 😍#WashingtonFreedom #SteveSmith pic.twitter.com/VeGvqyaGSQ
— Washington Freedom (@WSHFreedom) July 3, 2024
Steve Smith has had a highly successful career, which is noteworthy to observe, especially during his time as Australia’s captain.
The Rajasthan Royals, Rising Pune Supergiants, and Pune Warriors are other IPL teams that Smith has led. His win-loss record was 25-17. In the 2017 Indian Premier League, he guided RPS to the championship match.
In addition, Washington Freedom, which won three of their five games and placed third in the rankings in MLC 2023, was captained by Moises Henriques, a former Australia teammate of Steve Smith.
Only Matt Short was able to score more than 150 runs, even though the team advanced to the knockout stages. Freedom will be hoping for extraordinary performances from the seasoned batter Smith brings to the team, as his bat will demand a significant quantity of runs to be scored by his team during the competition.