Indian Premier League 2016: Rising Pune Supergiants Look Up to Mahendra Singh Dhoni & Co.

Coming into the Indian Premier League auctions for the first time, Rising Pune Supergiants managed to grab some big names such as Steven Smith, Faf du Plessis and Kevin Pietersen. To be led by the mercurial Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Pune will also enjoy the services of former Chennai Super Kings players Ravichandran Ashwin, Irfan Pathan, Ishwar Pandey and Thisara Perera. (Indian Premier League 2016: Mahendra Singh Dhoni to Lead Rising Pune Supergiants)

Ishant Sharma - India's Test spearhead - is expected to lead the bowling attack alongside Ashwin. Mitchell Marsh, Ashok Dinda, Pandey, Scott Boland, Deepak Chahar would provide the back-up options.

One name that actually sprung a surprise in the auctions was Murugan Ashwin, the uncapped leggie from Tamil Nadu, who went for a whopping 4.5 crores. The way he was being bid for probably made it clear that Pune and other franchises know something about him that we probably don't.

Rising Pune Supergiants - The Big Bucks Players:

* Kevin Pietersen, who represented Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils in earlier seasons, was bought for 3.5 crores. KP was also a part of Sunrisers Hyderabad last season.

* Ishant Sharma, who played for Sunrisers Hyderabad last season, was bought for 3.8 crores.

* Irfan Pathan, was a part of Chennai Super Kings in IPL 8, was bought for 1 crore.

* Mitchell Marsh, who played for the now defunct Pune Warriors from 2011-2013, was bought for a whopping 4.8 crores.

* Thisara Perera, who played for Kings XI Punjab last season, was bought for 1 crore.

* Among other players, RP Singh was bought for 30 lakhs, Ankit Sharma for 10 lakhs, Ishwar Pandey for 20 lakhs, Rajat Bhatia for 60 lakhs, Ankush Bains for 10 lakhs, Peter Handscomb for 30 lakhs, Baba Aparajith, for 10 lakhs, Deepak Chahar for 10 lakhs, Ashok Dinda for 50 lakhs, Scott Boland for 50 lakhs, Adam Zampa for 30 lakhs and Jaskaran Singh, for 10 lakhs


Rising Pune Superginats - Coaching Staff:

Head Coach - Stephen Fleming

Assistant Coach - Hrishikesh Kanitkar

Bowling Coach - Eric Simmons


Rising Pune Supergiants - Past Record:

This will be Pune's first IPL.


Rising Pune Supergiants - Team Potential:

The biggest strength of Pune will be its strong batting line-up. Ajinkya Rahane and Kevin Pietersen will provide both solidity and stability at the top of the order while du Plessis, Dhoni, Smith and Marsh will be expected to provide the fireworks in the middle-order. With the limitation of having only four overseas players in the starting eleven, Dhoni will have to rely a lot on the Indian bowlers to secure him victories whenever the batsmen fail to deliver. It would also be interesting to see how Dhoni uses both Pathan and Marsh in the middle-overs.

All in all, Pune look settled on paper and anything less than a playoff spot would be a sheer disappointment for them.