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Former champions Bengal Warriors impressed fans with their strategy at the Pro Kabaddi 2022 Auction. The Kolkata-based franchise retained their skipper Maninder Singh ahead of the auction and built a fresh squad around him.
The Warriors failed to defend their championship last season. Playing under the leadership of Maninder Singh, the team finished ninth in the points table with nine wins from 22 matches. Team owners have changed their coaching staff ahead of PKL 2022.
The new coaches made some interesting signings at this year's auction. Here's a look at the full Warriors squad for Season 9:
Maninder Singh, Manoj Gowda K, Akash Pikalmunde, Suyog Baban Gaikar, R Guhan, Parshant Kumar, Vaibhav Bhausaheb Garje, Deepak Niwas Hooda, Ajinkya Rohidas Kapre, Girish Maruti Ernak, Shrikant Jadhav, Soleiman Pahlevani, Aslam Saja Mohamed Thambi, Ashish Kumar Sangwan, Vinod Kumar, Balaji D, Parveen Satpal, Amit Sheoran, Surender Nada, Sakthivel R, Shubham Shinde, and Rohit.
Overall, the Warriors team looks strong. In this listicle, we will look at their strongest playing seven for Pro Kabaddi 2022.
Bengal Warriors raiders - Maninder Singh, Deepak Niwas Hooda and Shrikant Jadhav
As mentioned ahead, the Kolkata-based franchise retained their star raider Maninder Singh for the upcoming PKL season. Singh has been one of the most consistent players in Pro Kabaddi history. Despite missing a couple of seasons, he stands second on the list of raiders with the most points in PKL so far.
In 101 matches, Maninder has earned 993 raid points, with the majority of them coming for the Bengal Warriors. He will be keen to breach the 1000 raid-point milestone soon and help the Warriors win their second title.
Mohammad Nabibakhsh has moved to Puneri Paltan this season, but the Bengal Warriors have signed two reliable raiders to support Maninder Singh. PKL's most successful all-rounder Deepak Hooda and former UP Yoddha raider Shrikant Jadhav will play for the Warriors in PKL 2022.
Hooda has scored 973 raid points in 140 matches, while Jadhav finished in the top 10 of the raiders leaderboard during Season 7 with 148 raid points in 22 matches.
Bengal Warriors defenders - Surender Nada, Shubham Shinde, Ashish Sangwan and Soleiman Pahlevani
Former Haryana Steelers defender Surender Nada moved to the Bengal Warriors at this year's auction. Nada is likely to play in the left corner position for Bengal. Shubham Shinde, who has scored 46 tackle points in his PKL career, will take the right corner position in the playing seven.
Girish Ernak may have to wait for his turn as the team management would prefer Iranian defender Soleiman Pahlevani as their left cover defender for the initial matches. If Surender Nada or Pahlevani fails to impress in the first few games, Ernak could take their place in the defense.
All-rounder Ashish Sangwan will likely play in the right cover position. Availability of all-rounders like Ashish and Deepak Hooda will give the Warriors lineup some much-needed balance.
Bengal Warriors Predicted Playing Seven - Shubham Shinde (Right Corner), Surender Nada (Left Corner), Maninder Singh (Right In), Shrikant Jadhav (Left In), Ashish Sangwan (Right Cover), Soleiman Pahlevani (Left Cover) and Deepak Niwas Hooda (Center).
