Supergiants add George Bailey
Rising Pune Supergiants have brought in Australia batsman George Bailey to replace Faf du Plessis, who has been ruled out of the IPL with a broken finger.
The former Australia captain has enjoyed previous IPL stints with Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab.
Bailey has made 579 runs in 34 IPL games at an average of 25.17 and with a strike rate of 129.82.
The Supergiants have struggled in their debut season; they sit in sixth place with four points from eight games.
However, this has largely been down to the fact that they have lost star players Kevin Pietersen, Mitchell Marsh and Steven Smith due to injury.
Pune have brought in Usman Khawaja to replace Pietersen and are looking to announce Marsh’s replacement in the coming days.
Speaking to ESPN, Pune chief executive Raghu Iyer 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. Bailey has tremendous experience and had a very successful season before last.
Bailey currently plays for the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League and his experience will certainly help the Supergiants.