The fourth season of the Star Sports Pro-Kabaddi League is scheduled to be held later this year. The auction for the upcoming season was held on Friday where 198 players went under the hammer. 96 players from the 198 were bought by the franchises for a total value of Rs.12.82 crores as the teams looked to strengthen ahead of the upcoming campaign.
The highest bid was made by the Bengaluru Bulls, who bought star player Manjeet Chillar for Rs.53 lakh after having an initial base price of Rs. 12 lakh. The highest valued overseas player was Iranian Fazel Atrachali, who went to the Patna Pirates for Rs. 38 lakh.
With each team only allowed to retain two players from their squads of the last three seasons, there were plenty of big changes and bidding wars. The teams and their updated squads are as below.
Bengal Warriors
The Bengal Warriors have underachieved in the Pro Kabaddi League. They finished 7th in the first season, winning only four out of 14 matches. They have slowly improved since, coming 6th and 4th in the league. Last season they managed to qualify for the play-offs but could not make it to the finals.
The Bengal Warriors have tried to build a finely balanced squad with a mixture of experience and youth. Defenders Nilesh Shinde and Girish Ernak had been retained by the Bengal Warriors from their squad. Here is the list of players signed by the Warriors.
Squad
Defenders: Nilesh Shinde, Girish Ernak, Amit Singh Chhillar, Vishal Mane, Chaminda R.S.M, C.Arun, Ravi Kumar, Sushil Vijay Bhosle
All-rounders: Suyog Rajapkar, Yogesh Subhash Sawant
Raiders: Simon Kibura, Jang Kun Lee, Nitin Mandane, Surjeet Narwal, Ravi Dalal, Shrikant Jadhav, Mahendra Ganesh Rajput, Ravindra Ramesh Kumavat
Bengaluru Bulls
The Bengaluru Bulls have been a force to reckon with in the Kabaddi League. They qualified for the playoffs in the first season but could not make it to the finals. In the second season, they managed to reach the finals but lost a closely fought encounter with U Mumba.
The Bulls had retained defender Ashish Sangwan and raider Pawan Kumar before strengthening by buying Mohit Chillar for a record fee and also buying former U Mumba player Surender Nada.
Squad:
Defenders: Ashish Sangwan, Jeeva Gopal, Manoj Kumar, Mohit Chhillar, Surendar Nada, Rahul Kumar, Ravinder Kumar, Nicolas George Mottram
All-rounder: Sanjay Shrestha
Raider: Pawan Kumar, Sinotharan Kanesharajah, Pawan Kumar, Deepak Kumar Dahiya, Amit Rathi, Yogesh Hooda, Rohit Baliyan, Sumit Singh, Ajay Singh, Harish Naik
Dabang Delhi
Dabang Delhi have not performed well in the PKL. They have been on a downward spiral since the first season where they finished sixth. They slipped up in the second edition, finishing 7th and finished last in the third season of the PKL.
Delhi were a team that urgently required re-strategising and rebuilding going into this auction. They had retained their two raiders, Kashiling Adake and Selvamani K going into the auctions. Dabang Delhi have signed raider Bhupinder Singh and Iranian Meraj Sheykh. Delhi also purchased Deepak Narwal, who previously played for the Patna Pirates.
Squad
Defenders: Ram Kumar Sah, Prashant Chavan, D.Gopu, D.Suresh Kumar, Sachin Shingade
All-rounders: Bhupender Singh, Meraj Sheykh, Hadi Tajik, Phonchoo Tin, Manjeet
Raiders: Kashiling Adake, Selvamani K, Prashant Kumar Rai, Deepak Narwal, Umesh Mhatre, Sanket Chavan, Vikash Khandola
Jaipur Pink Panthers
The Abhishek Bachchan owned Jaipur Pink Panthers bring a sprinkling of stardust to the PKL. They were also the first ever PKL champions, having won it in the very first season of the tournament. The Pink Panthers, after winning the first edition have regressed, finishing 5th and 6th in the second and third editions respectively.
The Jaipur based franchise had retained raider Jasvir Singh and all-rounder Rajesh Narwal from the previous squad. They have refreshed their squad and will be hoping that their downward spiral does not continue.
Squad
Defenders: Wei Yang, Rohit Rana, Amit Hooda,
All-rounders: Rajesh Narwal, Shrikant Tewathia, Ran Singh, Parvesh Bhainswal, Parween Narwal
Raiders: Jasvir Singh, Masayuki Shimokava, Mahipal Narwal, Shabeer Bappu, Lo Chia Wei, Tushar Patil, Amit Nagar
Patna Pirates
The Patna Pirates are the defending champions of the PKL. They will be looking to continue the dominance they showed in the previous season of the league. They had finished 3rd and 4th in the first two editions of the PKL and went on to defeat U Mumba in last years’ finals.
They have retained Pardeep Narwal and Rajesh Mondal for the next season of the PKL. The key transfers they undertook were the purchases of defenders Dharmaraj Cheralathan and Bajirao Hodage, both highly experienced defenders.
Squad
Defenders: Dharmraj Cheralathan, Bajirao Hodage, Deepak Dhull, Vijin Thangadurai, Fazel Atrachali, Abolfazel Maghsodlo, Sunny, Sunil Kumar
All-rounders: Sanjay Kumar, Hadi Oshtorak, Kuldeep Singh
Raider: Mahesh Goud, Pardeep Narwal, Rajesh Mondal, Vinoth Paulyas
Puneri Paltan
The Pune based team finished third in the PKL last season after some scintillating performances in 2016. This was remarkable, considering that the Pune team had finished at the foot of the table for the previous two seasons.
Going into the auctions, the Puneri Paltans had retained two star performers, Manjeet Chillar and Deepak Niwas Hooda. They made a couple of shrewd purchases by enlisting the services of former Jaipur raider Sonu Narwal and former Delhi defender Ravinder Pahal.
Squad
Defenders: I Ketut Ariana, Gurpreet Singh, Somvir Shekhar, Ravinder Pahal, Joginder Narwal, Khomsan Thongkham, Virender Chhillar
All-rounders: Parmod Narwal, Preetam Chhillar, Manjeet Chhillar, Dalbir, Deepak Niwas Hooda
Raider: Ajay Thakur, Sonu Narwal, Jay Bahadur Bohara, Anil Shriram Nimbolkar, Akshay Jadhav
Telugu Titans
The Telugu Titans have been mid-table finishers in the PKL. They finished fifth in the first and third editions of the PKL, while finishing third in the second season of the league. They won half of their 14 games on their way to finishing fifth last year.
The Vizag based franchise retained the services of Sukesh Hegde and Rahul Chaudhuri from the previous edition of the league. The key purchases they made were those of Sandeep Narwal, formerly of Patna Pirates, and Jasmer Singh Gulia who had been a part of the Puneri Paltans.
Squad
Defenders: Vinod Kumar, Sandeep Dhull,
All-rounders: Jasmer Singh Gulia, Rupesh Tomar, Sandeep Narwal, Mohammad Maghsoudlou, Shashank Wankhede, Aklhaq Hussain, Muhammed Rizwan, Sagar B. Krishna, Vishal Bhardwaj
Raiders: Vinoth Kumar, K.Prapanjan, Nilesh Salunke. Rahul Chaudhary, Sukesh Hegde, Sombir, Athul MS
U Mumba
U Mumba is the most successful team in the Star Sports Pro-Kabaddi League. They have a win percentage of 75%,allowing them to dominate the league and reach the finals on all three occasions. They have managed to win the PKL once, in the second edition and lost the two other finals they were in.
U Mumba had retained the services of captain, Anup Kumar and Rishank Devadiga before the auctions. They made smart purchases in Gurvinder Singh and Sunil Kumar, both formerly from the Patna Pirates.
Squad
Defenders: Jeeva Kumar, Vikas Kale, Sunil Kumar, Manoj Dhull
All-rounder: Rakesh Kumar, Sourav V
Raider: Gurvinder Singh, Mohammed Aruduzzaman Munshi, Suresu Kumar, Surendra Singh, Mohammed Zakir Hussain, Tuhin Tarafder, Anup Kumar, Rishank Devadiga, Nitin Kumar
