rising pune supergiant

Biography

First known as the Rising Pune Supergiants during their inception in 2016, the team's name was changed to Rising Pune Supergiant a year later. It was a franchise cricket team from Pune, Maharashtra, the second one from that place after Pune Warriors India, and it played in the Indian Premier League for two seasons. This team, along with Gujarat Lions, were replacements for Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, who were serving their 2-year suspension. They acquired the services of MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Steven Smith and Faf du Plessis in the 2016 IPL players draft.

In 2016, RPS had to move to Visakhapatnam to play their home games due to protests arising over IPL games being held in Pune as the state was facing a severe drought. In the first year, under MS Dhoni's captaincy reign, the franchise finished in the 7th position but propelled to the final in the following year when Steven Smith took over as captain. Although, they lost to Mumbai Indians in that all-important game, which was also their last game in the league.