Rising Pune Supergiants rope in George Bailey

The Rising Pune Supergiants have signed Australian player George Bailey as the replacement for Faf du Plessis. Rising Pune Supergiants have been plagued with injuries this season, with as many as 4 of their overseas players already ruled out of the IPL this season.

Kevin Pietersen, Faf du Plessis, Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith were the players to be ruled out following injuries. RPS have not been performing to their potential either and have lost 6 out of their 8 matches so far. The injuries haven’t helped their cause either.

Smith was the most recent to be ruled out following a wrist injury. “Smith’s [news] been a bummer. He was just coming into his own and this happened,” Raghu Iyer, chief executive at Supergiants, said. “It is a challenging time. Before we could settle down we lost the core group of players around whom you build a team around.”

According to Iyer, given Bailey’s leadership experience, he can cover for the loss of Smith and Pietersen. “We lost four crucial players, but we are looking ahead. Bailey has tremendous experience and had a very successful season before last. He can contribute to the leadership group,” Iyer said. In 34 IPL games, Bailey has 579 runs at 25.17, with a strike rate 129.82.

RPS had earlier roped in Usman Khawaja as the replacement for Kevin Pietersen. Speaking on the replacements of Steve Smith and Mitch Marsh, Iyer said that it would be named in the next couple of days.

George Bailey last played for Kings XI Punjab in the IPL and was in the Chennai Superkings prior to that. Bailey led the KXIP side to the finals in the 2014 edition of the IPL.

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