The Rising Pune Supergiants made their Indian Premier League (IPL) debut in 2016, but were one of the poor teams in the competition. They finished seventh in the list of eight teams with five wins and nine losses, which was embarrassing for the team led by MS Dhoni.
The Sanjiv Goenka-owned franchise are going to make some major changes in their team for the new season, and are even ready to release big names, including Kevin Pietersen. Around 10 players are expected to be released, reported The Telegraph, Calcutta. Besides the Englishman, names such as Ishant Sharma, Irfan Pathan and Albie Morkel are doing the rounds for possible release, and they might feature for some other teams in IPL 2017.
As a result of this, they are going to depend to a large extent on their players like Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Steve Smith, Faf du Plessis, Usman Khawaja and Mitch Marsh, who were decent performers in IPL 2016 for their side. These players are once again going to be led by Dhoni, who was one of their best players last season, scoring 284 runs.
If RPS top brass decide to officially release a number of players, the RPS will have to be active during the IPL 2017 auction in February. They will have to come well planned, and buy some good national and international talent so that they can be a formidable force in IPL 2017.
With RPS reported to let go off Pietersen, who only featured for four matches in IPL 2016 as he suffered an unfortunate calf injury ending his season thereafter, other franchises will have their eyes on him as he could be a great addition to any team. The right-hander may no longer be a part of the English national team, but make no mistake as the cricketer plays various T20 leagues around the world, and has been scoring runs as well.
Hence, one can expect a bidding war for Pietersen in the IPL 2017 auction.
