IPL 2017, RPS vs MI Preview: Steve Smith’s Pune face mighty Mumbai

Interestingly, Pune also made their IPL debut against the same opposition last year and it was Indian batting’s mainstay Ajinkya Rahane who stood strong to help his side take away the match. So for now the head-to-head tally comes down to 1-1 as interesting encounter awaits at the MCA on Thursday.

What has changed

However,  a lot has changed since the last encounter. Especially, when you talk about Supergiants, they have witnessed many alterations in their camp and one of the major one is the transfer of captaincy baton. Australian captain Steve Smith has been assigned the responsibility of leading this Pune team while MS Dhoni is now available as a wicket-keeper batsman. Moreover, one of the most important Pune players, R Ashwin has been ruled out of the tournament due to sports hernia and which has come as major setback for the team.

While Rising Pune Supergiants have faced a bit of problems in their line up, Mumbai Indians on the other side seem to be a well-balanced team. Some hard-hitting openers along with aggressive batsmen in the middle combine them to form a big batting power house.

What’s in the kitty

Rising Pune Supergiants consist of names who are capable of turning fortunes single-handedly on their day. Skipper Steve Smith, wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni, South African Faf du Plessis, newly roped in English all-rounder Ben Stokes and Proteas leggie Imran Tahir are some names on whom RPS would bank upon.

Mumbai Indians on other hand have always been a side who have clubbed together young and local talent and have attained success quite a few times. Moreover, the squad has been able to nurture youngsters who have represented India on the highest level. So a combination of local lads with international heroes might bring up another good show for Mumbai Indians.

Limitations for the sides

Supergiants suffered a huge blow when Ashwin was ruled out of this years tournament, on the other hand this year’s highest auctioned player Stokes doesn’t really have a great T20 statistics. Though, he has the ability to pick wickets on at crucial times while can chip in with important runs, the Englishman is still left to prove his worth.

For Mumbai Indians, it would be a tough call for the skipper to make when he would be given the task of deciding his line up and majorly the bowling line up. With limitations of making only four overseas players, Rohit Sharma would be looking to notch an easy way of making a perfect XI.

With such well-poised line ups at their disposal, it would now be up to the two skippers on how they go about this opening match of theirs in the tournament.