IPL 2017: Rising Pune Supergiants v Mumbai Indians, 5 factors of winning

#4 X-factor

Ben Stokes has a huge price tag to live up to

It was shocking when Imran Tahir, the world’s best short format bowler as per ICC rankings didn’t find any takers. Sanity has prevailed eventually and the South African leg-spinner would play for Pune, replacing the injured Mitchell Marsh.

However, Pune will not probably have the services of Tahir available for their season opener. Adam Zampa is the only other spinner Pune have currently, although he has impressed in the past. Ben Stokes, Pune’s big ticket player needs to fire to justify his astronomical price-tag. Many a star player before him has succumbed to that pressure.

MI’s X-factor has to be their lower order firepower – Jos Buttler and Sri Lanka’s Asela Gunaratne, who showed nerves of steel to win Sri Lanka some back-from-the-dead matches against South Africa. Whether the latter would get a chance to play remains to be seen. If Buttler goes berserk, MI will have no trouble notching up big scores batting first and when they are chasing, teams will always be wary of what’s going to come down the order after Kieron Pollard.