The latest news from the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League 2017, is that former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been removed as the captain of the newly former Rising Pune Supergiants.
Australian skipper Steven Smith has replaced Dhoni has the skipper of the Franchise Sunday, February 19, 2017.
Dhoni is one of the richest sportsmen in the world and has a huge fan following across the world; his fans will definitely not be happy with this piece of news. Dhoni has been spearheading his team since the last ten years.
Did Dhoni step down?
Initially, there were reports that Dhoni himself stepped down from the captaincy for unknown reasons, but the owner of Pune Franchise cleared the air and issued the statement that Dhoni has been replaced by Smith as they wanted a younger player to lead their side.
Sanjay Goenka issued a statement which read; "He added MS Dhoni had not stepped down. We have named Steve Smith as the captain for the forthcoming season. Frankly speaking, we did not have a good last season, and we wanted someone young to lead the side and revamp it ahead of the upcoming season 10"
Pune had a miserable debut 2016 season
I bet @RPSupergiants will lost their 80% fans because of this decision making steve Smith skipper replacing MS Dhoni
— Debjit Sinha (@DebjitSpeaks) February 19, 2017
Pune did not had a good debut season last year under Dhoni as they won only five games out of 15 and were placed in the seventh position at the points table.
Dhoni did not have a good season himself last year as he scored just 284 runs in 14 games that he batted which is his lowest in any IPL season.
Eight years MSD has captained the Chennai Super Kings team and had won the trophy twice in 2010 and 2014.
This important decision was made just a day prior to the IPL auction 2017 to be held in Bengaluru.
Best thing on Internet today 😍 Dhoni and Ziva 💘 pic.twitter.com/ERMrvNOo1U
— ️ (@FarziCricketer) February 14, 2017
This might be a blessing in disguise for the former Indian skipper has he can now concentrate on wicketkeeping and batting. He needed a much-needed rest. India won the ODI World Cup twice under the captaincy of Dhoni.
It will be interesting to see if Dhoni will be promoted in the batting order or not.
Smith to be ahead of Ms Dhoni 😂😂😂
— Parul Msd (@ParulMeshram1) February 19, 2017
Rip to ur thought Mr. Owner 😛😵
Whatver support u had till now for ur team, that also u have lost now..
The Pune CEO has acknowledged that Dhoni will be treated with utmost respect as a senior and most experienced IPL player.
