Mahendra Singh Dhoni might have been sacked as the skipper of Rising Pune Supergiant for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League but Ajinkya Rahane has said he is looking forward to ‘learn a lot’ from the former India skipper.

After a dismal inaugural season that saw the newcomers finishing the season at the seventh position in the eight-team tournament, the franchise have made it clear that they mean business in the tenth edition of the tournament. After buying Ben Stokes for a record-breaking Rs. 14.50 crore, they replaced MS Dhoni with Steve Smith as the captain of the team.

The decision was quite baffling considering the fact that Dhoni is India’s most successful skipper and is also one of the best captains in the IPL. However, the Pune-based franchise was keen to give their team a fresh look and so handed over the reins to the Australia skipper. But even though he is not the captain of the team, there is no denying the fact that he will be key to Rising Pune Supergiant’s fortunes with his vast wealth of experience.

“Mahi is not the captain but will get to learn a lot from him. We feel very lucky if he is around because it is great to pick his brain,” Rahane said at a press conference in New Delhi.

Rahane further said that the change in captaincy won’t make a difference to the squad and they won’t have any trouble in playing under Smith this season.

“We are all players and we will have a collective effort from everyone so it doesn’t matter who is leading the side,” he added.

The tournament gets underway on April 5 with defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad taking on Royal Challengers Bangalore. Pune will open their campaign against Mumbai Indians on April 6.