RPS vs GL: Can Pune overcome Gujarat hurdle? Team news and likely XIs

Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) all of a sudden have picked up their momentum and out of nowhere, Steve Smith and co. has won four out of their last five matches. They are well and truly on course to cementing their place in the top four of the IPL 2017 points table. 

In order to add two more points next to their name, RPS will square off against their bogey side Gujarat Lions in Match no. 39 of the IPL 2017 at the MCA Stadium in Pune. RPS have never won against Gujarat Lions since the last season. This time around it is going to be different. Steve Smith's side have the momentum and they will have their noses ahead in this game. 

Suresh Raina and co. succumbed to the Super Over scare against Mumbai Indians in their last game. The Lions need to win five out of five games in order to give them a fair chance of making it to the IPL 2017 playoffs.

Raina and co. took a massive blow as Andrew Tye has been ruled out of the IPL 2017 because of his dislocated shoulder. They will have to make a force replacement in the team and Jason Roy looks like a direct swap. But this would definitely weaken their bowling attack which was looking much better than it looked like during the early stages of IPL 2017. 

RPS, on the other hand, is unlikely to make any changes to their playing XI. Considering the fact that the wicket is going to assist the bowlers, Smith will look to stick to his playing XI and not tinker with it. 

Likely XIs:

Rising Pune Supergiant: Rahul Tripathi, Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith (c), MS Dhoni (wk), Manoj Tiwary, Daniel Christian, Washington Sundar, Lockie Ferguson, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Imran Tahir.

Gujarat Lions: Irfan Pathan, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina (c), Ravindra Jadeja, Aaron Finch, James Faulkner, Jason Roy, Basil Thampi, Ishan Kishan, Ankit Soni.

• IPL
• IPL 2017
• RPS vs GL
• Steve Smith
• MS Dhoni
• Suresh Raina