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Ms Dhoni Was The Reason Rps Reached Ipl 2017 Final Not Steve Smith Rajat Bhatia

MS Dhoni was the reason RPS reached IPL 2017 final, not Steve Smith: Rajat Bhatia

Rising Pune Supergiant was one of the two teams apart from Gujarat Lions to feature in the IPL 2016 and 2017 respectively. While Pune was led by MS Dhoni in the 2016 season, the former India captain was removed from his post in the next edition and the captain’s armband was handed over to Steve Smith. RPS made it to the final of the IPL in 2017.

While Smith was the captain of the side then, all-rounder Rajat Bhatia who was also a part of the setup has claimed that it was because of Dhoni that the team made it to the final. RPS ended the tournament as the runners up.

Speaking on SportsTiger’s interview series – Interact. Personal. Laugh & Life (IPLL) – Bhatia said, “You can never compare Dhoni with Steve Smith. Smith doesn’t even feature in the top 10 captains for me. Dhoni was the reason we reached the IPL 2017 final.”

Dhoni has been the second most successful captain in the IPL leading Chennai Super Kings to three titles. CSK along with Rajasthan Royals returned back to the IPL in 2018. The MS Dhoni-led team won the IPL in that season.

The Chennai Super Kings will now begin the IPL 2021 campaign against Delhi Capitals in Mumbai on April 10.

The 2020 IPL was the first ever season when CSK didn’t make it to the playoffs since the beginning of the league. With some new recruits, the franchise would seek to turn fortunes in their favour.

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Jofra Archer undergoes surgery on his finger; unlikely to feature in first half of IPL

England pacer Jofra Archer has undergone surgery to remove broken pieces of glass that he carried in his finger over the entire tour of India. Now, he will undergo rehabilitation at least for 14 days and likely to miss the first half of the Indian Premier League where he represents the Rajasthan Royals. Notably, before the tour of India, Jofra Archer was cleaning a fish tank in his house in the UK and injured his finger in the process of cleaning the mess when that tank fell on the surface. ECB’s Director of Cricket Ashley Giles confirmed on BBC’s Tuffers and Vaughan Show that the extent of the injury was not serious and that the wound was also a closed one that did not hamper Archer’s chance in India. Archer has also been grappling with a recurrent stress fracture in his right elbow since the tour of South Africa in 2019-20 and it also forced him to miss two of the four-Test matches against India.

Transition will be smooth when senior players retire: Shami hails young bowlers

India pacer Mohammed Shami has praised the young fast bowlers of the team for their performance in Australia and has said that the transition will be smooth when the senior members retire. In the absence of senior bowlers, young guns like Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, T. Natarajan and Washington Sundar took up the responsibility and produced some positive results for India during the course of their 2-1 win in the Test series away from home. “The youngsters will be ready to take over from us when our time (to retire comes). The more they play, the better they will get. I think the transition will be very smooth whenever we are done with the game,” Shami told PTI. Talking about the trend of carrying net bowlers in the bubble enviornment, Shami suggested that the process has helped in creating a strong side. “The trend of carrying net bowlers in the bubble environment has helped them massively and given them valuable exposure,” he added. The fast bowler who had to leave the Test series in Australia in between after getting injured insisted that the way the bowling attack fared shows that the team management can rely on it in the future. “Beating Australia in Australia once is a very big achievement, we were able to do it twice, that too with no senior bowlers around. It has shown we can rely on the youngsters.” India first defeated Australia in the four-match Test series in an away fixture and then thumped England 3-1 on the home soil to make a place for themselves in the final of the World Test Championship scheduled to take place in June at Lord’s. India will play New Zealand in the title clash.

Mitchell Marsh pulls out of IPL 2021, Jason Roy comes in as replacement

Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh has pulled out of the IPL 2021 citing bubble fatigue as per a Cricbuzz report. Marsh who is a part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad has conveyed the message to the BCCI and the franchise. The all-rounder has expressed his inability to spend a long time in bio-bubble. As per the latest protocols, the right-handed batsman would have to go under a 7-day quarantine apart from staying in a restricted ecosystem during the tournament. SRH have roped in a prominent England batsman as Marsh’s replacement. The Aussie all-rounder has played 21 matches and had been a part of Pune Warriors India and Deccan Chargers in the previous editions before moving to the Hyderabad-based franchise in IPL 2020 where he was picked for a base price of Rs 2Cr. Though he didn’t play the majority of the tournament after he had twisted his ankle during SRH's very first match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). SRH will begin the IPL 2021 campaign on April 11 against KKR in Chennai. FULL SQUAD: David Warner (c), Kane Williamson, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Manish Pandey, Sreevats Goswami (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Priyam Garg, Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Virat Singh, Jason Holder, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T. Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddarth Kaul, Basil Thampi, Jagadeesha Suchith, Kedar Jadhav, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman

Was looking to get into the groove: Rahane after hitting the nets ahead of IPL 2021

Delhi Capitals Ajinkya Rahane sweated it out in the nets in Mumbai during the team’s first practice session for the upcoming IPL 2021. Rahane said that he had batted for the first time in 20 days and was just looking to get into the groove. “I batted for the first time in 20 days. We came out after being in quarantine for seven days, so I was just looking to get into the groove and get into a good rhythm,” said Rahane. Rahane further added that as the tournament comes closer, the team would be looking to maintain the momentum. “And as we get closer to the tournament, it will be all about maintaining that good rhythm and momentum,” Rahane added. DC on Tuesday announced Rishabh Pant as the new captain after Shreyas Iyer sustained an injury during the England series at home and would be missing the major part of the tournament. The Delhi-based franchise will begin the IPL 2021 campaign on April 10 against Chennai Super Kings in Mumbai. DC had a decent run in the last edition after they managed to reach the final for the first time in the history of IPL under the captaincy of Iyer. Though, they lost the title clash to Mumbai Indians. The Capitals side added some new and prominent faces to the ranks after they bought Steve Smith for a sum of Rs 2.20 Cr, Umesh Yadav for Rs 1 Cr, Tom Curran for Rs 5.25 Cr and Sam Billings for Rs 2 Cr during the mini auctions held in Chennai in February. Smith was earlier released by Rajasthan Royals while Umesh had been a part of RCB in the previous seasons.