The franchise today announced that Australia captain Steve Smith will replace Dhoni as the new captain in this year's edition. (Also read: MS Dhoni sacked as Pune IPL captain, Steve Smith new skipper)(WATCH VIDEO HERE)Goenka told India Today that Dhoni was extremely cooperative with the franchise's decision. "We have decided to appoint Steve Smith as captain for this season. (Also read: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, IPL's most celebrated and successful captain)Former India captain Dhoni led the now-suspended Chennai franchise to IPL titles in 2010 and 2011 but under his captaincy Pune finished second last in their maiden IPL season last year. We had the luxury of having Steve Smith and Faf du Plessis, two international world class captains in our team and we decided to have Steve.

Source: India Today February 19, 2017 12:23 UTC