IPL 2016: 5 reasons why Rising Pune Supergiants have failed this season

MS Dhoni created Indian Premier League (IPL) history in the recently completed edition of the tournament. It was not the sort of history that Dhoni fans would have hoped for as the Indian limited-overs captain failed to lead his side into the IPL playoffs for the first time ever.

In fact, the Dhoni-led Rising Pune Supergiants finished just above bottom-placed Kings XI Punjab in the seventh position, thus avoiding the wooden spoon. After winning the first match of the IPL against defending champions, Mumbai Indians, Pune won only four more games until the end of the season.

Ajinkya Rahane's form with the bat was one of the very few silver linings in what was a season to forget for Pune fans. Here we take a look at what went wrong for Dhoni's side:

#1 – Injury plight

There is no doubt which team was the most affected by injuries during the 2016 IPL. Pune lost the mercurial Kevin Pietersen early on in the season to a calf muscle injury. Before the RPS camp could recover from the Pietersen setback, they lost opener Faf du Plessis after he broke his finger and was ruled out for six weeks.

Steve Smith and Mitchell Marsh were later ruled out of the tournament due to a wrist injury and a side strain respectively. Even captain Dhoni and Rahane suffered bruises later on but kept playing despite the setbacks after losing out on their main players.

Maybe Pune's fortunes would have been different had they not been affected by so many injuries. However, it has to be noted that even the replacements for the injured players did not perform well, that probably laid more emphasis on Pune missing out on key players.

Dhoni was not able to lead his side from the front this IPL

#2 – Uninspiring captaincy from Dhoni

MS Dhoni has always been one of the most consistent players in the IPL, finishing games time and again for the Chennai Super Kings. However, he has not had the same luck with his new franchise, as he had a poor season with the bat as well as in marshalling his troops.

Dhoni scored only 284 runs in 12 innings. Although his batting average might be just above 40, it has to be considered that he remained not-out on five occasions. The fifty and the only notable innings he played was in Pune's last league match against Kings XI Punjab where he scored 64* off 32 balls to give his side a last-ball win.

In addition to his batting, there were many matches when he showed a certain incompetence in strategising with the team selection and also in not using his bowlers wisely.

Perera (L) failed to impress with the bat despite being known as a power-hitter

#3 – Lack of power-hitters

During the auction, it surprised everyone that Pune did not try to get any of the talented all-rounders available. When they went for Smith, du Plessis, and Rahane it bemused many cricket fans as to why the franchise was going for players with similar styles.

Pietersen was probably the only batsman who could have carried out some power hitting. However, with age, the Englishman has lost the ability that he had early on in his career. Some might argue that Thisara Perera is a player who can take the game away from the opposition. But, with a lack of consistency about the Sri Lankan's batting, not much of trust can be placed on him to deliver consistently.

R Ashwin (L) had a season to forget with the ball

#4 – Ashwin's disappointing run with the ball

Ravichandran Ashwin was one of the best bowlers of the IPL before the start of the season, and it would have been only fair to predict that he would continue in the same vein in this edition of the tournament. However, the Tamil Nadu spinner was unable to replicate his form from CSK to Pune.

On analysing the performance of the 29-year-old, it could be due to a lack of good captaincy by Dhoni rather than the fault of the bowler himself. Dhoni failed to make use of his most potent spin weapon in an effective manner. On the other hand, it could also be the case that Ashwin was unable to adapt to the situations that he was put in.

In the 14 innings that Ashwin played he picked up only 10 wickets at an average of 31.89 and an economy rate of 7.25. For a bowler who has an IPL bowling average of 23.31 and an economy rate of under 7, these are below par numbers and could have contributed to Pune's downfall.

It could be argued that Irfan Pathan (L) did not get treated fairly

#5 – Players not given earlier chance

Another major reason for Pune's poor performance could be because of Dhoni's inability to give certain players a chance to play early on in the tournament. The top two wicket-takers for Pune were Adam Zampa and Ashok Dinda, and they played only five and nine matches respectively.

In addition to these two, Irfan Pathan, who was the best player during the 2016 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, played only three matches in the whole tournament. With Pune missing a genuine all-rounder, it would have been wise to have given Pathan an opportunity earlier on in the season.

Maybe if these players had been given chances to play on from the start of the tournament, it might have ended on a much better note than what it eventually did. However, this will be a learning experience for the Pune management, and it might force them to perform better in the upcoming IPL auction and season.