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The league stage of Pro Kabaddi League 2019 is done and dusted as the top six teams of the season will now fight it out in the playoffs to determine the winner. Only two of the top six teams, namely U Mumba and Bengaluru Bulls, have won the PKL trophy earlier while the rest four teams will look to win their maiden season.
However, the pool of the eliminated teams consisted the likes of the three-time champions Patna Pirates, two-time runners-up Gujarat Fortune Giants, the season one champs Jaipur Pink Panthers, the star-studded Tamil Thalaivas, Anup Kumar's men Puneri Paltan and Telugu Titans.
These franchises missed out on the playoffs because they could not find the perfect team combination.
But this would not have been the case had they signed one game-changing player in the auction. In this article, we will have a look at the one unsold player who could have helped each eliminated team qualify for the playoffs -
#6 Bajirao Hodage - Jaipur Pink Panthers
The former Patna Pirates star, Bajirao Hodage had made a name for himself playing at the right cover position in the Pro Kabaddi League. However, he attracted no bidders in this season’s auction.
If there was one team which needed a solid right cover defender like Bajirao, it was the Jaipur-based franchise. The inaugural champions tried a lot of players in that position but nobody could cement their place in the team.
They had Sandeep Dhull at the left corner, Amit Hooda on right and Vishal at the left cover position. However, they never found a perfect right cover.
The team management of Jaipur Pink Panthers could have formed a perfect defensive unit by acquiring the services of Hodage in the auction.
#5 Kashiling Adake - Patna Pirates
Patna Pirates looked a solid team on paper as it seemed like the team management had found perfect support raiders for Pardeep Narwal in the form of Mohammed Maghsoudlou and Jang Kun Lee.
In the first game of the season, the Iranian raider had impressed the fans with his all-round brilliance but, as the season went forward, Maghsoudlou’s performances took a dip.
Also, Jang Kun Lee was not at his best in season seven which left Narwal as the lone warrior for the Patna Pirates once again. The three-time champions won those matches where their star raider played well but there was not a single new hero emerging from the Patna side.
Here, a veteran like Kashiling Adake could have solved their issues because he has an immense experience of playing in the league. He was the lead raider of Dabang Delhi K.C. once upon a time and then also played for Bengaluru Bulls and U Mumba.
When Surender Nada was ruled out of the tournament because of an injury, Patna missed the golden chance of signing Adake and went for Monu, who did not live up to expectations.
#4 Jasvir Singh - Gujarat Fortune Giants
Manpreet Singh’s young army, Gujarat Fortune Giants, had kicked off the 2019 edition of Pro Kabaddi League on a fantastic note with three wins in as many matches. It seemed like the Ahmedabad-based franchise will once again reach the final of the tournament. However, they lost the momentum midway through the season and got eliminated from the tourney.
They could not win a single match in their home leg while many of their defeats were by the margins of seven points or fewer. Also, Gujarat Fortune Giants played two tied matches in the 2019 season. Had Jasvir Singh been a part of this team, they would have won at least three or four matches more.
The reason Gujarat lost so many matches this year was that the youngsters crumbled under the pressure after their lead raider, Sachin could not repeat his magic in this season.
Jasvir Singh knows the art of slowing down the pace of the match after gaining the lead. He is not a raider who will give you Super 10s every game but he can win matches by controlling the pace of the match with his experience. Jasvir’s services could have helped Gujarat qualify for the playoffs of this season.
#3 Mahendra Ganesh Rajput - Puneri Paltan
If you have a look at the Bengal Warriors team, you discover that the raiding trio of Mohammad Nabibakhsh, Maninder Singh and K. Prapanjan played a huge role in the team’s success. They even had Sukesh Hegde on the bench so the raiding department of the team was efficient.
On the other side, Puneri Paltan had a strong defence, but they lacked the ‘X-factor’ in their raiding attack. Anup Kumar unearthed the talent in Pankaj Mohite while Manjeet proved to be the cornerstone of the team. However, the team’s leading raider, Nitin Tomar struggled with his fitness once again.
Hence, it would have been an excellent move had the Puneri Paltan side signed Mahendra Ganesh Rajput ahead of Darshan Kadian, Pawan Kadian and Amit Kumar in the auction.
Rajput knows to how win matches for his team and he could have emerged as the savior for Puneri Paltan when Nitin Tomar was out.
The quartet of Manjeet, Pankaj, Nitin and Rajput could have given a good number of options to Anup Kumar and without a doubt, Mahendra would have helped Puneri Paltan a lot.
#2 Sachin Shinghade - Telugu Titans
The team management of the Telugu Titans deserved to be commended for their efforts in the auction of PKL 2019. They snapped up the former U Mumba raider, Siddharth Desai and had retained the corner duo of Abozar Mighani and Vishal Bhardwaj. The team also had great raiding options in the form of Suraj Desai, Rajnish and Rakesh Gowda.
Their defensive unit looked solid with the presence of Farhad Milghardan along with the two corners.
However, the only weak link of the Telugu Titans defence was their cover defender, C. Arun. Despite having good experience of playing in the Pro Kabaddi League, Arun had more unsuccessful tackles than the successful ones in PKL 2019.
In this scenario, the unsold Sachin Shingade could have proven to be a game changer for the Hyderabad-based franchise. Shingade has a decent strike rate of 42.81 in the defence while he also has played in all the previous six editions of PKL.
These stats show that Sachin could have played a vital role in the defensive unit of Telugu Titans and no one knows how far they would have reached with the addition of Sachin to their squad.
#1 Darshan J. - Tamil Thalaivas
Tamil Thalaivas had assembled probably one of the best squads in the Pro Kabaddi League this season. Their starting seven featured the six most prominent names of the tournament.
The trio of Ajay Thakur, Rahul Chaudhari and Shabeer Bappu formed their raiding unit whereas Mohit Chhillar and Ran Singh played at the corner positions with Manjeet Chhillar playing as the left cover defender.
The only weak spot of the Tamil Thalaivas was the right cover defender and all the teams ensured that they attack the player playing at the right cover. Once the Tamil Thalaivas lost their momentum, they were never to able to bounce back into the tournament which handed them the wooden spoon.
However this may not had been the case if the team owners would have signed their own former right cover, Darshan J. in the auction. The defender had gone unsold and Tamil Thalaivas committed a huge blunder by letting him go.
Darshan had impressed the fans with his extravagant performances in season five. He could have proven to be the missing piece of the Tamil Thalaivas’ puzzle.
Now, all that the team management can do is repent their decision of releasing Darshan and not buying him in the auction.
