IPL 10: Pune acquire Shardul Thakur from KXIP

  New Delhi:  Shardul Thakur will now play for Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) as the franchise decided to acquire him from Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) for the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League to be held across the country from April 5 to May 21. Thakur was picked up by KXIP in the 2014 IPL players’ auction. The talented Mumbai seamer however, played just one match for the Punjab-based franchise in last year’s edition. Thakur has been one of the top wicket takers for the last two domestic seasons and impressive show also earned him an India call-up for the tour of West Indies in 2016. This is the second trade done by RPS after having secured Delhi Darevdevils' batsman Mayank Agarwal. Notably, RPS decided to relieve MS Dhoni from leadership duties and appointed Australian captain Steve Smith as their leader for the tenth edition of IPL. Pune will open their campaign against Mumbai Indians on April 6. RPS squad: Steve Smith (C), Adam Zampa, Ajinkya Rahane, Ankit Sharma, Ankush Bains, Ashoke Dinda, B Aparajith, Ben Stokes, Daniel Christian, Deepak Chahar, Faf du Plessis, Ishwar Pandey, Jaskaran Singh, Jaydev Unadkat, Lockie Ferguson, Manoj Tiwary, Mayank Agarwal, Milind Tandon, Mitchell Marsh, MS Dhoni, Rahul Ajay Tripathi, Rahul Chahar, Rajat Bhatia, R Ashwin, Saurabh Kumar, Shardul Thakur, Usman Khawaja.