Tracing the journey of all defunct teams in IPL history

#3 Pune Warriors India (2011-2013)

Pune Warriors India were among the bottom two teams during all of their three appearances at the IPL

Owned by Subrata Roy, Pune Warriors India was one of the two new franchises added to the fourth season of the IPL. The team was led by Yuvraj Singh and had the likes of Graeme Smith, Jesse Ryder, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey and Mitchell Marsh. However, PWI lost a couple of key players like Ashish Nehra, John Hastings and Steve Smith before the start of the tournament.

Pune Warriors India had a brilliant start to IPL 2011 by winning their first two matches. However, this was followed by six consecutive defeats. The team roped in Sourav Ganguly and won a couple of matches but it was a case of too little too late for them and they ended their maiden IPL season in 9th position.

For IPL 2012, PWI had Sourav Ganguly as their skipper as Yuvraj Singh was still recovering from his bout of cancer. They had Nehra and Smith back for the tournament. Pune boycotted the auction but signed a few players outside the auction like Marlon Samuels, Luke Wright, Michael Clarke and Tamim Iqbal. They began the tournament in a manner similar to 2011 as they won their first two matches, the first of which was an unexpected win against Mumbai Indians.

PWI won two of their next five games and were looking at a decent position with 4 wins from 7 matches. However, they lost all of their remaining nine games and ended the tournament in last position.

For the 2013 season, PWI roped in Aaron Finch, Ajantha Mendis and Ross Taylor and had Yuvraj Singh back. They began poorly by losing their first two matches but won two of their next three matches. This was followed by another 9-match losing streak. However, PWI ended the season by winning their final two matches against Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils. They ended the tournament in 8th position above Delhi Daredevils.

Two days after their final match, Pune Warriors India pulled out of the IPL due to financial differences with BCCI.