After four games if you have to make four to five changes in your squad, something is not going right with your team. This is the time when the tournament will pick up its pace and if still, you are struggling to get your balance right, then something serious needs to be done.
MS Dhoni’s form has been miserable in this IPL so far, scoring just 33 runs and strike rate below 100 is not kind of Dhonisque we know. In my opinion, if MS Dhoni is given chance at No.3, it will be helpful for him as well for Pune because as a finisher they are heavily relying on him.
Previous Encounters-
In their previous encounter in 2016 season, Royal Challengers Bangalore proved a better team vis a vis Rising Pune Supergiants. In their first meeting, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers took the centre stage for RCB and added 155 runs together and then Kane Richardson with his bowling helped RCB winning the first encounter.
In their second meeting, RCB chased down a huge total of 192, Virat Kohli’s one of his four century came in that game. For Pune Ajinkya Rahane and Saurabh Tiwary scored fifty and helped Pune reach to 191.
Recent Form-
Both the teams are standing in the same situation winning just one game and losing three of their four played matches.
RPS- W L L L
RCB- L W L L
Talking Points-
Rising Pune Supergiants despite having some big names in the side are looking one of the weakest side overall in this IPL, to click their performance in par-level MS Dhoni’s performance really matters to this team.
The lower order heavily relies on him, and he needs to step up because first leg’s half matches are done. Ajinkya Rahane after that first game has been quiet, in the game against Gujarat he was unlucky when Suresh Raina plucks a blinder to dismiss him on the duck but in Bangalore his stats are good and he will be looking to give a good start to Pune. Pune needs to consider Faf Duplessis in the squad as Ajinkya Rahane’s opening partner, his presence with MS Dhoni at No. 3 and Smith at four playing the role of the anchor as well as a finisher will help Pune batting.
Rising Pune Supergiants-
Ajinkya Rahane, Faf Du Plessis, MS Dhoni(WK), Steven Smith(C), Manoj Tiwary, Ben Stokes, Rajat Bhatia, Shardul Thakur, Imran Tahir, Jaydev Unadkat, Deepak Chahar/Rahul Chahar