Dhoni removed as Rising Pune Supergiants captain, Steve Smith to lead
Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been removed as captain of the Rising Pune Supergiants following his uninspiring leadership last season with the team finishing in seventh place. Australian skipper Steve Smith has been named as skipper for the 2017 Indian Premier League to start in April.
Dhoni had led Chennai Super Kings in eight editions of the tournament before the franchise was suspended by the Supreme Court.
MS Dhoni removed as IPL team Pune Supergiants captain;Management decided to name SteveSmith as captain as team wasnt happy wth his captaincy
— ANI (@ANI_news) February 19, 2017
The Pune-based franchise managed to win just five of their 14 matches last season. They began the tournament brightly with a comfortable win over Mumbai Indians before embarking on a run of four consecutive defeats. They failed to win any of their home matches in Pune before shifting to Visakhapatnam for their final three home games, where they did win their final two matches, but it was too little, too late.
RPS boasted of a strong batting lineup with the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni, Steve Smith, Faf du Plessis, and Kevin Pietersen. However, Pietersen could not make an impact as the Englishman was ruled out with an injury and could only feature in four games. Pune lost a lot of their overseas players to injuries as the tournament progressed, and even du Plessis made only six appearances for them.
Dhoni, who stepped down as limited-overs captain last month, will now play under someone in the IPL for the first time.