PKL 10: Who is the owner of UP Yoddhas?

UP Yoddhas are one of the newest teams in the Pro Kabaddi League. It was founded in 2017 and is owned by GMR Group. The team is based in Lucknow. They play their home matches at Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium. The team made history when they bought Pardeep Narwal for a record price of INR 1.65 Crores. He was the most expensive player when he was bought in the season eight.

GMR Group is one of the fastest-growing infrastructure enterprises in the country. They were founded in 1978. Since then, the company has completed several projects in India. GMR Group is headquartered in New Delhi and has been developing projects in high-growth areas such as Airports, Energy, Transportation and Urban Infrastructure.

They have been promoting and nurturing potential talent at the grassroots level in and around the capital. 

Apart from Kabaddi, the team has also invested in various other sports, starting from Cricket to Kho-kho. The team owns the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League as well as the Women's Premier League. 

They also own Dubai Capitals which represents the city of Dubai in the newly launched International League T20. 

India Capitals is another cricket league that they own in the Legend League Cricket T20. They represent the Indian team in the league. 

Telugu Yoddas is a franchise Kho Kho Team that represents the state of Telangana in the Ultimate Kho Kho (UKK) League. 

With several franchises and teams to their name, GMR Group is certainly one of the most important investors in the country.

History of UP Yoddhas in the PKL
UP Yoddhas are one of the newest franchises in the history of the Pro Kabaddi League. Since their existence in 2017, they have managed to reach the playoffs right from their first edition. 

In season five, the Pro Kabaddi League was played in the form of zonal matches. 

The teams were divided into two zones with each zone having six teams based on their geographical proximity. 

Each team had 15 intra-zonal matches and 7 inter-zonal matches. The top team in each zone made it to the semi-final directly. The teams that finished second and third in each group, played in the eliminator, and the winner made it to the semi-finals. UP Yoddhas finished third in season 5. 

UP Yoddhas went on to finish in the third spot in the next three seasons. In the ninth season of the Pro Kabaddi League, they finished in the fourth spot. 

The team's most successful season was season 7. They went on to win 13 matches out of their 23, ending the tournament with a win percentage of 60.87.

Overall, the team has played 71 matches and has won 31, lost 30 and 10 of their matches ended in a draw. Most of their losses came against the Gujarat franchise, Bengaluru Bulls, Jaipur Pink Panthers and Puneri Paltan. The team enjoys a good record against Tamil Thalaivas, Patna Pirates and Telugu Titans, amongst others. 

The team's issue has been their dependency on a particular player in each season. For example, they had invested a lot in Rishank Devadiga and Nitin Tomar. When the raiding duo failed, the team failed to impress as well. 

For the upcoming season, they are likely to revamp their whole team. Despite having a great team every single season, they had failed to make it to the final. They have finished third consistently and will be aiming to go one step ahead in the upcoming season of the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League. It will be interesting to see whom they retain and whom they buy for the upcoming season.