Usman Khawaja replaces Faf du Plessis in the Rising Pune Supergiants

The Rising Pune Supergiants management were in for another shock on Thursday when scans revealed their star opener Faf du Plessis has incurred a finger fracture and has been ruled out of IPL season 9. However, RPS have signed up Australian opener Usman Khawaja as the replacement for du Plessis.

“One of our mainstays du Plessis has injured his finger during the course of the last match and has returned to South Africa for further treatment. We wish him speedy recovery,” coach Stephen Fleming said in a statement in Pune.

“We are glad to have roped in Usman Khawaja in the team.”

“His presence will definitely be an advantage to the team and could be pivotal in bolstering the position of the side in the tournament,” he added.

A technically orthodox batsman, Khawaja doesn’t strike out as a T20 opener, but his spectacular form in the KFC Big Bash League 2015-16 where he scored 2 hundreds and 2 fifties in the 4 matches he played, earned him a call-up to the national squad for World T20 2016.

Du Plessis is the second RPS overseas player after Kevin Pietersen to be ruled out for the season.

“His imperious form for the Sydney Thunders in the Big Bash League victory last season and being the leading run-scorer for Australia, for the recently-concluded World T20, has made us sit up and notice. His style of play is perfect for the T20 format,” Fleming said.

Khawaja top scored for Australia in the recently concluded World T20 which was also held in India, taking the attack to the opposition right from the first ball in an otherwise lackluster tournament for the Australian batters.

After a rather poor start to the season, RPS will be keen to extract the most out of this classy entertainer.

Written by Piyush Ahuja

Anil sympathises with Dhoni – What happened to Dhoni is very unfortunate: Anil Kapoor