Having played their first IPL tournament last year, Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) had emerged out as one of the most followed IPL franchisees with huge fan-base. Former Indian skipper MS Dhoni captained the side at VIVO IPL 2016. The team gave an average performance at IPL 9 and didn’t make it to the Play-off stage.
VIVO IPL 2017: SWOT Analysis of Rising Pune Supergiant #IPL
Out of the 14 matches that RPS played so far, they won 9 and lost 5 of them. This year, there came a surprise announcement as MS Dhoni was replaced by Steve Smith for the captain’s job. However, MS Dhoni will continue to play at VIVO IPL 10 as a regular wicket keeper.
RP-Sanjeev Goenka Group-owned RPS have a lot of expectation this year. It made some smart moves at the last month’s IPL auction assuring fans that they will perform even better this year. They bought the fantastic English all-rounder Ben Stokes for a huge 14.5 crore for the upcoming editions of the premiere tournament. The team represents Pune (its home ground) and also the cultural capital of Maharashtra.
Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS): Strengths at a Glance
- The team has a strong opening combination with the likes of Usman, Khawaja, Steven Smith, Faf du Plessis and Ajinkya Rahane on the top.
- With quality all-rounders like Dan Christian, Mitchell Marsh, Ben Stokes, R Ashwin and Rajat Bhatia, the team looks very much formidable.
- MS Dhoni will be play as a regular wicket keeper of the team sans any captaincy pressure. Surely, he will play more freely than ever now – for the first time Dhoni will play without any captaincy pressure at IPL.
- Adam Zampa and Ashwin are the two destructive RPS spinners who can dismantle any team in their four-over spells.
- The team is well balanced with good domestic cricketers too. Some famous Indian faces of the squad are Mayank Aggarwal, Ashok Dinda, Jayadev Unadkat and Ishwar Pandey.
Also Read: IPL 2017: Complete fixtures, schedule and time in IST with venue details
Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS): Weaknesses at a Glance
- RPS have only two specialist fast famous bowlers in the side; Ashok Dinda and Lockie Fergusion.
- The team doesn’t have specialist big hitters in the side like Pollard, Ab de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Bravo amongst others. Most RPS batsmen are a sweet timer of the ball rather than hitting them outside the stadium.
- RPS don’t have a good specialist leg spinner. Adam Zampa is in the squad but he doesn’t have enough experience in representing this team at T20 matches. Let’s see whether he excels at this tournament or not.
IPL 2017: Full squad and players list of Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS)
MS Dhoni, Steve Smith, R Ashwin, Mayank Agarwal, Baba Aparajith, Ankush Bains, Ankit Sharma, Rajat Bhatia, Deepak Chahar, Daniel Christian, Rahul Chahar, Ashok Dinda, Faf du Plessis, Lockie Ferduson. Usman Khawaja, Jaskaran Singh, Saurabh Kumar, Ben Stokes, Milind Tondon, Manoj Tiwary, Jaydev Unadkat, Adam Zampa
Squad strength: 24 (16 Indian, 8 Overseas)
Tags: #IPL, Indian Premier League, IPL 10, IPL 2017, Rising Pune Supergiant, RPS, VIVO IPL
