What is Missing from Rising Pune Supergiants Arsenal?

By: Tarish Bhatt

Out of ten, Rising Pune Supergiants would beat the Kings XI Punjab at least eight times. But Sunday was different day for MS Dhoni’s men.

The Kings beat them by a shocking six wickets with eight ball to spare in Mohali. It was the biggest upset of the 2016 IPL, as the Kings earned their first win after losing two back-to-back games.

Pune did right thing by opting to bat first and had a relatively decent start to their innings. Faf du Plessis was again at it and played a magnificent knock for his team.

Even Steven Smith played an important innings to guide Pune well. They finished with 152 for seven, just 11 runs less than their previous match show against the Gujarat Lions. Almost a repeat show. But this could be a worrying factor for the team in the days to come.

Why so? Barring Dhoni, who rarely flops with bat, there isn’t any middle-order batsman in Pune team with an ability to hit the ball out of the park at will.

This is one area, where a few of the teams like the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Gujarat Lions and few others are ahead of the Supergiants.

Otherwise, Pune’s top-order is quite sorted. From Rahane, Faf, Kevin Pietersen, Smith to Dhoni – all are capable of winning matches single-handedly. Through them, this team is capable of getting good starts on regular basis.

Still, Pune would need at least two to three batsmen in the lower-middle order with long handle to support Dhoni. Someone who can finish games with his captain.

Someone who can attack the opposition in the slog overs. Dhoni did make some changes in the playing XI in Kings’ match, but it was of no help to the team. That is because the lower middle order isn’t strong enough. Someone needs to stand up and be counted!