3 Indian T20 franchises that have been named 'Supergiants'

India played its first-ever T20I on December 1, 2006, against South Africa at Johannesburg. At that time, who would have predicted the shorter format of the game would become this popular in this cricket-crazy nation? The Men in Blue's inaugural ICC T20 World Cup victory in September 2007 and the birth of the Indian Premier League (IPL) changed the whole dynamics of the gentleman's game.

Now, apart from the highly popular IPL franchises, there are several other franchises in India with the T20 format spreading its wings across the country. State leagues are similar to the IPL, with franchises based out of different cities within the state aiming for glory.

Though we might have heard the saying 'What's in a name?', there is something special about the name Supergiants when it comes to the Indian T20 franchises. On that note, let's look at three instances when an Indian T20 franchise was named the 'Supergiants'.

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1) Rising Pune Supergiants (Rising Pune Supergiant)

While MS Dhoni led the franchise in 2016 IPL, Steven Smith took over during the tenth edition

The now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant (earlier Supergiants) franchise was owned by Sanjiv Goenka's RPSG Group. It was one of two new teams to be inducted into the IPL for season nine and ten, after the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were banned for those editions.

MS Dhoni captained the franchise during the 2016 IPL, in which the side based out of Pune finished seventh among eight teams, having won just five out of their fourteen league games. Apart from Dhoni, the team had several star Indian players including Ravichandran Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma and RP Singh.

Just ahead of the 2017 IPL, the Rising Pune Supergiants changed their name to 'Rising Pune Supergiant'. It was announced that Steven Smith would lead the side for season ten, replacing MS Dhoni much to the surprise of the fans. The team performed well throughout the season, thereby qualifying for the playoffs as the second best team with nine wins.

Unfortunately, they lost the low-scoring final against Mumbai Indians in Hyderabad by the narrowest margin by one run, much to the heartbreak of their fans. Nevertheless, the franchise, which was inducted into the league as one of its replacements, provided much to rejoice for fans worldwide in the two seasons they played.

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2) Madurai Supergiants (Madurai Supergiant)

Madurai Supergiants followed Rising Pune Supergiant's footsteps in changing their name to Madurai Supergiant ahead of 2017 TNPL

The Madurai Supergiants were one of eight franchises that featured at the inaugural edition of Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) in 2016. Unfortunately, the team led by KB Arun Karthik and coached by Michael Bevan finished bottom of the table during season one as they ended their campaign winless in the seven league matches they played.

Before the second edition of TNPL in 2017, the franchise followed Rising Pune Supergiant's footsteps for a change in their fortunes by renaming them as Madurai Supergiant. Despite that, the team wasn't able to register its first win in the league having once again gone winless, losing six out of the seven matches they played, with a game ending in no-result.

Unfortunately, after lackluster performances in the first two editions, the franchise became defunct and the ancient city of Madurai had a new team from season three of TNPL with owners Siechem naming the side as Siechem Madurai Panthers after winning the bid.

The brand new franchise went on to win the title in their first season, defeating the Dindigul Dragons in the final at Chepauk by seven wickets.

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3) Lucknow Supergiants

Luknow Supergiants have gone for KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis and Ravi Bishnoi at the 2022 IPL Player Drafts

For the 2022 edition of the IPL, the BCCI wanted to add two new teams apart from the existing eight franchises. Season four was the last instance when ten teams featured in the lucrative league. Yet again, the Sanjiv Goenka-owned RPSG group won the bid and it was announced on October 25, 2021 that the franchises would be based out of Lucknow.

While former Zimbabwe skipper Andy Flower has been appointed as head coach, Gautam Gambhir has been given a mentor role for the brand new side. During the players draft which took place ahead of the upcoming 2022 IPL auction, the franchise picked dynamic Team India batter KL Rahul (₹ 17 crores), Aussie all-rounder Marcus Stoinis (₹ 9.2 crores) and young uncapped Indian spinner Ravi Bishnoi (₹ 4 crores).

Though the team management came up with the innovative idea of asking the fans to suggest a name for the franchise, it was eventually decided that the franchise would be known as Lucknow Supergiants, thereby re-affirming owner Sanjiv Goenka's love for the name - Supergiants.

Rahul, who has also been appointed as skipper, becomes the joint-highest-paid player in the history of the IPL along with Virat Kohli, who was signed by the Royal Challengers Bangalore for the same amount before the 2018 IPL auction. It would be interesting to see how far the Supergiants would go in the upcoming edition of IPL under Rahul.