Rajasthan Royals (RR) skipper Steve Smith and his team is looking forward to putting on a good show in their opening match for the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) against Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Rajasthan Royals will take on CSK on September 22 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. “Chennai and Mumbai both have been two solid teams for a long time now. We obviously watched a bit of the game the other night, the Super Kings played really well to get over the line in the end. Hopefully, we can put on a good show and get our campaign off to a good start,” Smith was quoted as saying in a team media release.

Smith had missed the recently-concluded ODI series against England due to extended concussion and now the right-handed Aussie batsman would be determined to showcase his skills in the UAE.

On this preparations ahead of the season opener, Smith said: “Yeah obviously (I) missed the last three ODIs in England. Been in Dubai for a couple of days now with some good rest and then got into a bit of running.

“Yesterday I did a bit of zig-zag running, which is part of the protocols to pass to get back to play and today I’ll have a hit in the nets. Hopefully, pull up well from the hit and be good to play tomorrow.”

“The guys have been here for a month now, and from all reports, the training’s been magnificent. It’s been good to catch up with both the old and the new Royals, we’re in a good place and have got an outstanding squad this year, really strong, and we’re ready to get going,” he added.

Rajasthan head coach Andrew McDonald has also brushed aside rumours of Smith’s absence from the first match of Royals due to an extended concussion.

“Fantastic news that Steve is available. It’s fantastic especially on the back of some setbacks back in the UK,” McDonald said.

“It’s obviously great to have your skipper available for the first game as I’ve said before we are in really good hands.

“In terms of the rest of the squad, we couldn’t be happier with their preparation. We’ve got what we needed, having been here nice and early to get our preparation going on the back of the long lay-off.

“We have got the bases covered and have some really good depth in the squad and really looking forward to seeing what it looks like in a real competitive match against CSK.

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“They had a fantastic first game, they’re one game into the tournament which is a slight advantage when you come out against the team that’s already played and performed.

“So we’ll definitely have our work cut out and really looking forward to what our guys can bring to the table and we”re really excited about what the journey presents,” he added.