Rising Pune Supergiant announce new title sponsors, unveil new jersey ahead of IPL 2017

New Delhi, March 30: Rising Pune Supergiant announced global mobile company Motorola as its title sponsors for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 here on Thursday (March 30). (IPL 2017: RPS Full Schedule)

Tournament Schedule" title="RPS Full Squad for IPL 2017; Tournament Schedule" />RPS Full Squad for IPL 2017; Tournament Schedule

Rising Pune Supergiant's newly appointed skipper Steve Smith, Ajinkya Rahane and their most expensive buy of the IPL 2017 auction Ben Stokes were present at the event.

Franchise owner Sanjiv Goenka was also present at the event where he also unveiled a new jersey.

"#HelloMoto! Proud to announce Motorola @Moto_IND as our Title Sponsors for IPL 2017. #MotoRPS," tweeted Rising Pune Supergiant.

#HelloMoto! 😀
Proud to announce Motorola @Moto_IND as our Title Sponsors for IPL 2017. 🎉 #MotoRPS pic.twitter.com/2AatrSTUyg

— RisingPuneSupergiant (@RPSupergiants) March 30, 2017

However, team's biggest star and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni wasn't present at the event.

Raghu Iyer (CEO RPSG) announces @moto_IND as Team Sponsor of the RPS for IPL 2017 and invites @mathursudhin on stage. pic.twitter.com/gAOyF63ish

— Moto India (@Moto_IND) March 30, 2017

The franchise owners stunned everybody as they removed M Dhoni from the leadership role, just a day before IPL auction. Apparently, RPS didn't get a favourable start in their debut season as the MS Dhoni-led side finished second last in the IPL 2016 points table.

RPS will be up against Mumbai Indians (MI) on April 6 in their first game of IPL 2017.

RPS bought England all-rounder Ben Stokes for Rs 14.5 crore, thus making him the costliest overseas player ever in IPL. This was also the highest amount paid by a team in this year's players auction.

Stokes will be making his IPL debut under the leadership of Smith, who is the captain of Australian cricket team. Smith couldn't do much for his franchise in the previous edition for injury ruled him out of the tournament in the early stage. Smith, however, slammed a ton in one of the match he played last year.

When Ajinkya Rahane was asked about change in leadership, the India vice-captain stressed that cricket is a team sport and whoever is leading the team doesn't really matter.

"Mahibhai (MS Dhoni) is not the captain but will get to learn a lot from him. We feel very lucky if he is around because it is great to pick his brain," Rahane said at a press conference in New Delhi.

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