IPL 2017 – Still Trying To Find Our Best XI – Steven Smith
Apr 14, 2017 at 11:41 PM
Four games into their second edition of the IPL and the Rising Pune Supergiant are yet to find their best team combination. Their inaugural edition in 2016 was marred by a sense of complete indecisiveness when they hardly could connect any dots.
It took a great deal for the then skipper MS Dhoni to ensure that the team didn’t finish last in the points table.
In this season as well, things have looked utterly bleak for the outfit from Pune. Barring their thrilling win over the Mumbai Indians, Pune has now endured three back to back losses. None of the boxes seems to be ticking for this side, as everything they do seems highly incomplete.
That was obvious in yet another defeat, this time to the Gujarat Lions in Rajkot. In a game, where they failed to defend a moderate total, skipper Steven Smith did admit that the side was yet to address its best playing XI.
“I don’t think that wicket really changed over the course of 40 overs,” said a helpless Steven Smith after his side’s loss. “It was a pretty good wicket. We got ourselves into a good position but lost a few wickets in clumps and we weren’t good enough tonight.”
“The surface played better than we thought it would. When Dwayne and McCullum get going, it’s hard to stop them and we could not come back after that. One of the disadvantages of being a new team, Gujarat are on the same boat, we are still trying to find out our best XI. A few guys put their hands up tonight, which was good,” Smith added.