#3 Rising Pune Supergiants
Indian fans will not have a lot to like about Pune’s team this year, considering the franchise replaced the crowd favourite MS Dhoni with Australia’s skipper Steven Smith as the captain. That wouldn’t have gone down well with many. Add to that the acrimony of the Border – Gavaskar series and Smith has a real challenge up his sleeve. However, that will help Smith is the availability of some really good foreign players at his disposal.
The Australian skipper’s scintillating form in the Test series which saw him score 499 runs aside, Smith also has the services of South Africa’s Test skipper Faf du Plessis, all-rounder Daniel Christian, his own teammates Usman Khawaja and Adam Zampa and the IPL’s most expensive foreign player, Ben Stokes from England, who will contribute with both bat and ball. Pune will look to shake off a bad performance last year.
