IPL 2017 Fantasy Tips: Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) vs Kings XI Punjab (KXIP)
Transfers made – 1; Transfers remaining – 0
Chris Lynn out – Glenn Maxwell in
(uncapped) Krunal Pandya out – Rahul Tewatia in
3+ transfers preference order: 1. Steve Smith 2. Martin Guptill 3. Wriddhiman Saha
Captain – Ben Stokes
Be it their batting order or the attacking intent, Kings XI Punjab’s approach in the match against Mumbai Indians raised a lot of eyebrows. With today being another knockout scenario, I don’t expect them to be any different. The only change that you could possibly expect is an early fall of the first wicket could bring Shaun Marsh to the crease, and not Glenn Maxwell as it happened at the Wankhede.
Either way, the lowest Maxwell could bat is at No.4, and the bowling attack of Rising Pune Supergiant is tailor-made for him to tee off. In addition to all these factors, the 28-year-old is also giving you a couple of overs regularly, which makes him an obvious pick. Wriddhiman Saha, when he bats in the top 3, has his days, like the one against Mumbai the other night, but not the gears to be consistently successful in T20 cricket.
There is a pattern that is starting to emerge with Martin Guptill – his inability to pace a T20 innings, and that rules him out from contention for my team. If you have more than three transfers, given the kind of damage he can do when things go his way, the Kiwi international is still a gamble worth taking, though.
Coming to the Kings XI bowling unit, it is exactly for his returns in the last couple of matches that I wasn’t keen on picking Sandeep Sharma despite his mid-season purple patch. I already have Axar Patel, but if you don’t have him, you should more often than not escape with it. Only impact picks are worth spending a transfer on at this stage of the tournament.
From the Rising Pune Supergiant, with Ben Stokes and Rahul Tripathi in, the only other player who could make a difference to my team is Steve Smith. The Australian captain looked in great touch in the last match but again failed to convert a start into something big. Apply the same transfer logic for Guptill here before deciding on whether or not to have him on your team.
Jaydev Unadkat could get you a couple of wickets, but if you want more from your transfers, it is better to spend it on players with better fantasy potential such as Guptill and Smith this match or Sanju Samson and Virat Kohli in the next one.