It can’t get any worse than this for the Rising Pune Supergiants(RPS). Lying sixth in the table, RPS has lost one more key player to injury.
Australia captain Steven Smith became their latest casualty when he was ruled out of the rest of the 2016 IPL with a wrist injury. Supergiants had earlier lost Kevin Pietersen, Faf du Plessis and Australia allrounder Mitchell Marsh to injuries.

The injury will hurt RPS more because of Smith’s form in the last two matches where he hit his first T20 century and then 45 from just 23 balls in the last match.

“Steve has been struggling with pain in his right wrist for the last week during his stint in the IPL,” Australia’s sports science and sports medicine manager Alex Kountouris said. “We have been working with his IPL franchise Pune to monitor this, and unfortunately, it has not resolved. As such, he will return home from India for further assessment and treatment ahead of the tour of the West Indies.

“From the information we have so far, this doesn’t appear to be a serious injury but we are keen to give him the time to recover and rehabilitate before heading to the West Indies at the end of May.”

Smith’s injury means Pune won’t be having all the four overseas players who played in the first match of the season against Mumbai Indians.

With six losses out of eight games , Pune need a massive turnaround to qualify for the playoffs. But the ever-growing injury list has dealt a severe blow to their hopes. Their next match is against in-form Delhi Daredevils and they will need an inspiring display to keep their playoff hopes alive.