IPL Auction 2017: 5 players Rising Pune Supergiants will look to buy

#2 Martin Guptill

Martin Guptill was released by Mumbai Indians after just one season

Last season, Pune had a few opening combinations but none of them were successful. The Ajinkya Rahane-Faf du Plessis opening combination was the best of the lot and the franchise has retained both the players ahead of the 2017 edition. They have also retained Usman Khawaja and traded Mayank Agarwal in from Delhi Daredevils.

Du Plessis has been a vital part of MS Dhoni’s sides in the IPL and in all likelihood, he will open the batting alongside Ajinkya Rahane in the upcoming edition as well. The only concern about this batting pair is that both these batsmen need time to get going, and the team management might consider demoting the South African batsman (he excels at No. 3 for South Africa).

In this case, Mayank, who is in terrific form, might open the batting with Rahane or the team's think-tank might go for an overseas player, who is capable of giving the team a flying start early in the innings.

There are a lot of overseas openers available in the auction with Jason Roy being the favourite to fetch the highest bid from this category. Pune have to buy a lot of players in the auction and in all likelihood, they will let Roy go as he will cost them a lot of money and they could turn their attention towards Martin Guptill instead.

Guptill is an experienced batsman in this format and can get the team off to a flying start in the powerplay, something that MS Dhoni's men really need. Having Guptill at the top of the order will also help Rahane play his natural game.