Why the Rising Pune Supergiants aren’t Chennai Super Kings Version 2.0

It was a Sunday afternoon in Mohali, and the Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) lost their second game in succession against a resurgent Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) playing at home. Well before this season of IPL started, when the two new franchises picked their first 5 players from the pool of now defunct RR and CSK teams, players were split between the two new teams. But there was a look and feel of CSK to the new team from Pune.

Dhoni, Ashwin and Du Plessis were purchased from CSK. Later on, Stephen Fleming was appointed as the head coach to continue the successful captain-coach combination and the core philosophy when choosing the rest of the squad in the auctions seemed to have been similar, albeit within the constraints of the limited set of players available for selection.

Some fans started calling Pune version 2.0 of CSK. Sure it has been just 3 games, but it’s a compelling proposition to compare RPS with the most successful franchise in IPL cricket over the previous 8 seasons and see why it’s not really Chennai Sper Kings – Version 2.0.

Dearth of world-class fielders

Let’s look at fielding first. An often neglected aspect of cricket in yesteryears, T20 has taken the importance of fielding to a whole new level. For a 20 over game, when conditions and rules are so heavily skewed in favour of the batsmen, it’s the fielding that can often win you matches, especially the big ones.

RPS hasn’t really fielded too well in the tournament so far. Compare them with the CSK of the past and you’ll see why CSK won so many matches even when everything seemed lost. An outstanding catch by Raina, a brilliant run-out by Jadeja and those diving stops by McCullum – how often have they tilted the games in CSK’s favour?

Apart from these 3, there were Bravo, Du Plessis and Hussey who were all exceptional on the field and often inspired the laggards in crunch situations when it mattered the most. RPS has Smith, Du Plessis and Rahane, but surely CSK was far ahead of the current RPS team in terms of their fielding pedigree.

Lack of big-hitters

Let’s take a look at their batting now. Rahane, Du Plessis, KP, Smith, Dhoni, Marsh/Perera. Looks brilliant, doesn’t it? Problem is the RPS has too many batsmen who can play an anchor’s role and are one-dimensional in their styles. Smith, Rahane and Du Plessis are all brilliant, but they are players who score at strike-rates in the range of 120-130.

A modern day T20 side needs at least 3 players who can score at more than 150. At the moment, only KP and Dhoni are the ones capable of doing that, and unfortunately for RPS, KP hasn’t displayed a lot of his big-hitting in the 3 matches so far while Dhoni just hasn’t faced enough balls. Apart from KP stepping up and Dhoni batting up the order, probably Albie Morkel also needs to be given a go.

It was the first season when Morkel was picked by Dhoni in the playing XI for CSK. His consistent performances for the team forced South Africa to pick him regularly in the T20I side and even in their ODI side for a brief while. It was almost as if Dhoni unleashed Albie Morkel at the world stage. At CSK though, especially in the later seasons, he was often underutilized as the team was brimming with explosive batsmen right down until number 7 and was eventually let go by them after 6 seasons.

As luck would have it, Dhoni’s team bought him back at the auctions, this time for a different franchise. RPS lacks the batting firepower that CSK had and they need someone like Morkel desperately. Dhoni knows his game in and out too. Now may be the right time for Morkel to repay the faith that Dhoni showed in him a few years ago by bringing back RPS to winning ways.

Abysmal form of bowlers

Bowling is probably where the two teams come close; and not in a good way. Batting was the stronger suit for CSK too, as in the case with RPS. Ashwin became CSK’s strike bowler in the later years, but they never truly had a leader of the pack apart from probably Bollinger in the first 3 seasons and Nehra in the last 2. The bowling for RPS is all over the place at the moment.

Ashwin is going through his worst patch of form since breaking into the international scene. Ishant has been unpredictable, and the rest; well let’s just say they haven’t really been at their best yet. Marsh bowled well in seamer-friendly conditions at Wankhede in the tournament opener, but was dropped in the third game due to his inability to add much value with the bat.

Murugan Ashwin has been the only silver lining so far. To win a tournament, at least 2-3 bowlers need to take wickets regularly and the rest need to support them well.

Another striking feature about the Superkings was that a majority of their playing XI were capped international players or were regular picks in their teams. Contrast this with the current RPS team – Rahane is not a regular in the India T20 side, KP doesn’t play international cricket anymore; Marsh, Perera are more or less fringe players for their respective sides.

RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, Pathan, Dinda have not been playing T20Is for quite some time now, while Bhatia, M Ashwin and Ankit Sharma are all uncapped. It will definitely take them some time to get used to the rigours and demands of the highly competitive cricket that the IPL embodies.

With almost everything going against him, it looks like a tough road for MS and the Rising Pune Supergiants from here. It’s a test of Dhoni’s captaincy now as he is left with a new franchise and a new set of players to lead, many of whom have not even played regularly in IPL or for India and are short on match practice.

But these are the sorts of challenges that you play the game for. With another 11 matches to go and at least 7 matches to qualify for the play-offs, only time will tell whether Dhoni and his men can pick themselves up and truly rise like Supergiants.