Pune Warriors India in the IPL

A big first auction

Pune Warriors India were the other franchise added for 2011. At the mega auction they paid US$2.1 million for Robin Uthappa and US$1.8 million for Yuvraj Singh, who became captain, and spent more than any franchise except Kolkata. Two of their expensive buys, Angelo Mathews and Ashish Nehra, did not play for them that season.

Three difficult seasons

Pune finished near the bottom in each of their three seasons and never reached the playoffs. Sourav Ganguly, unsold at the 2011 auction, joined them as a replacement and captained them in 2012, his final IPL season. They spent the most at the 2013 auction, on Ajantha Mendis and Kane Richardson among others, without effect. After the 2013 season the owners withdrew in a dispute with the league over the franchise fee, and Pune's next IPL team, Rising Pune Supergiant, was a separate franchise.

How Pune spent

Pune bought nineteen players across the 2011 and 2013 auctions for just over ₹50 crore, and their purchases were the least reliable in this archive: only three of their ten most expensive buys played ten or more matches in the season they were bought. Angelo Mathews and Ashish Nehra, both expensive in 2011, did not play that season. In 2013 Pune spent more than anyone, and three of their four most expensive buys, Ajantha Mendis and Kane Richardson among them, played three matches or fewer; the fourth, Michael Clarke, bought for more than ₹2 crore, did not play at all.

The franchise played its first home season at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai and moved in 2012 to a new stadium outside Pune, which later became the home of Rising Pune Supergiant. Yuvraj's 343 runs and nine wickets in 2011 were the best individual return on any of their auction purchases.

Where Pune's players went

When Pune withdrew, their two biggest buys went on to some of the most notable auction stories that followed. Yuvraj Singh was bought by Bangalore at the 2014 auction for ₹14 crore, a record. Robin Uthappa went to Kolkata for ₹5 crore and was the leading run-scorer as they won the 2014 title.

Pune in CricArcade

In IPL Dynasty you can start as Pune Warriors India in 2011, with Yuvraj, Uthappa and the rest of the squad bought at their first auction, and try to reach the playoffs the franchise never did in its three seasons.