A tweak in the name and a new captain in place, Indian Premier League franchise Rising Pune Supergiant have gone through a minor overhaul from last year. The side had a forgettable debut season, finishing second from the bottom.
There were heads that rolled and in came Australia captain and Test cricket’s finest run-machine in modern times Steve Smith as the skipper. With the focus strictly on improving on their wretched previous season, the 27-year-old said his side had the bowling arsenal to win games,
“We have the bowling stocks with Imran Tahir and Adam Zampa, who did particularly well last season. They are ready to go and hopefully, make a big impact,” Smith said.
When asked what his strategy for IPL 10, the New South Wales batsman kept it simple, “With T20 cricket, it doesn’t matter where you play, you’ve got to be better than the opposition. Last year, we didn’t play as well as well as would have liked,” he added.
Smith comes into the tournament on the back of a fractious Border-Gavaskar series. He admitted to be unsure of his team combination ahead of their opening encounter, and also shed light on what makes the competition stand out from the rest of the franchise-based events around the world.
“It’s very hard to pick a team comprising of seven Indian players and four overseas players. There are quality players who sit on the bench. That is what makes this tournament great as they push the players who are playing to do well,” said the skipper.
“We’ll sit down and see the combination we can come up with,” Smith said. Rising Pune Supergiant play their opening encounter against two-time champions Mumbai Indians.
