As the Mumbai Indians and the Rising Pune Supergiant get ready to clash in the opening game of their IPL campaign, the focus will be firmly on the hosts, who have gone through a leadership change as MS Dhoni stepped aside for Australian Steve Smith to take over.
Smith will also hope for a better rapport with teammate Ajinkya Rahane, who was vice-captain of the India Test side in the bitterly-fought Test series.
The dynamics of the squad, which was assembled just ahead of last season, will be tested.
By contrast, Mumbai will go into the game with a settled core that has largely remained together for the past few seasons. However, they have been notorious for being slow starters and will want to change the trend.
Time: 8pm
Venue: Maharashtra Cricket Assocition Stadium, Pune
TV: Sony Max, Sony Six, Sony ESPN
Results in 2016
Played: 2
RPSG won: 1
MI won: 1
Rising Pune Supergiant
- This will be MS Dhoni’s first ever game in the IPL where he is not leading the side. The keeper-batsman was in charge of the now suspended Chennai Super Kings for eight seasons before leading Pune for last season. He was removed as captain ahead of this edition.
- Pune had a horrid debut season finishing second from bottom. They will be hoping for a turnaround in fortunes.
- They lost two key players in R Ashwin and Mitchell Marsh to injury ahead of the season. With not a particularly strong reserve, progress won’t be very straightforward.
“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.”
Steve Smith, Rising Pune Supergiant skipper
Squad: Steve Smith (c), Faf du Plessis, Shardul Thakur, MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Dinda, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Ankit Sharma, Ishwar Pandey, Adam Zampa, Jaskaran Singh, Baba Aparajith, Deepak Chahar, Usman Khawaja, Mayank Agarwal, Ben Stokes, Manoj Tiwary, Jaydev Unadkat, Rahul Chahar, Daniel Christian, Lockie Ferguson, Saurabh Kumar, Milind Tandon, Rahul Tripathi, Imran Tahir.
Mumbai Indians
- Rohit Sharma enters the tournament after being on the sidelines for four months. He has played just one domestic game in the meantime.
- This is Mahela Jayawardene’s first full coaching stint. The former Sri Lanka captain replaced Ricky Pointing for this season, had previously served as player-cum-mentor in other T20 leagues, but has never coached a top-level team before.
- In the 2016, the team failed to make the play-offs for the first time since 2009.
“I make decisions according to the team’s requirement. Being the leader of the team, I have to set an example, whether it is batting up the order or elsewhere. It is important to understand the balance of the team. You’ll get to know [during the game] where I’ll be batting.”
Rohit Sharma, Mumbai Indians skipper
Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Gopal, Lendl Simmons, Vinay Kumar, Parthiv Patel, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nitish Rana, Siddhesh Lad, Jagadeesha Suchith, Hardik Pandya, Jos Buttler, Tim Southee, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Punia, Saurabh Tiwary, Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Johnson, Karn Sharma, Asela Gunaratne, Krishnappa Gowtham, Kulwant Khejroliya.
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