After going unsold in the players' auction, former India captain Sourav Ganguly on Tuesday

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made a dramatic return to the Indian Premier League by signing up for struggling franchise Pune Warriors as replacement for injured pacer Ashish Nehra.

"We were waiting for Ashish Nehra's fitness report and ultimately the report came yesterday. I was already in talks with Ganguly and we decided that the amount of experience that Sourav has in cricket will no doubt help the team. So we finalised Ganguly last night," Pune Warriors Team Director Abhijit Sarkar said referring to the finger injury that Nehra has been nursing.

Ganguly, who played for Kolkata Knight Riders for three IPL seasons captaining them in two editions, went unsold in the January players' auction despite a rather modest base price of USD 400,000.

The 38-year-old refused a mentor's role with KKR after that and there had been speculation of a possible comeback through another franchise.

The left-handed batman was first sought by Kochi Tuskers Kerala but their application was rejected by the IPL's Governing Council.

However, he signed on the dotted line for Pune yesterday, giving a major fillip to the side which has lost six matches on the trot after starting promisingly with a couple of back-to-back wins.