Rising Pune Supergiant in the IPL

A stand-in franchise

When Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were suspended for 2016 and 2017, the league created two temporary franchises. Rising Pune Supergiants picked MS Dhoni, Steve Smith, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin and Faf du Plessis in a draft from the suspended squads, and bought the rest of their players at the 2016 auction, more than any other team except their fellow newcomers. Injuries hit them hard, and they finished seventh.

The second season

For 2017 the franchise, now Rising Pune Supergiant, made Smith captain in place of Dhoni and paid a record ₹14.5 crore for Ben Stokes, who was named player of the tournament. Pune reached the final and lost it to Mumbai by one run. When the suspensions ended the franchise was dissolved. Its owners returned to the league in 2022 with a new franchise, Lucknow Super Giants. Most of the players it had taken in the draft went back to Chennai and Rajasthan.

How Pune built

Rising Pune spent ₹38.5 crore across two auctions on 27 players, and more of that money went on all-rounders than at any other franchise in this archive, Mitchell Marsh and Ben Stokes above all. Their average price per player was among the lowest, because their stars had come through the draft rather than the auction.

The 2016 purchases were undone by injury: Marsh played three matches, and Kevin Pietersen and Ishant Sharma four each. The 2017 purchases were among the best value in the archive. Besides Stokes, Pune bought Jaydev Unadkat for ₹30 lakh, and he took 24 wickets including a hat-trick, and the uncapped Rahul Tripathi for ₹10 lakh, who scored 391 runs opening the batting.

Two seasons, two teams

Few franchises have changed so completely in a year; even the name changed, from Rising Pune Supergiants to Rising Pune Supergiant. Both seasons were played at the stadium outside Pune that Pune Warriors had used. The 2016 side, built around Dhoni, finished seventh; the 2017 side, captained by Smith and driven by Stokes, Unadkat and Tripathi, came within a run of the title. Several of those players, Unadkat and Tripathi among them, were in demand at the 2018 mega auction that followed.

Rising Pune in CricArcade

In IPL Dynasty you can start as Rising Pune in 2016 with Dhoni, Smith and the drafted core, and try to win the title the 2017 side missed by a single run.