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Puneri Paltan are one of the only two franchises to have been a part of the Pro Kabaddi League since its inception but never won the PKL championship. The Pune-based franchise has been home to several big names in the last eight years, but none of them has been able to inspire the team to the title.
This year, Puneri Paltan released their head coach Anup Kumar and roped in BC Ramesh as their new coach. There are some new faces in the Pune squad as well. Here's the full list of Puneri Paltan players for PKL 9:
Mohit Goyat, Akash Santhosh Shinde, Sanket Sawant, Govind Gurjar, Aslam Inamdar, Sombir Gulia, Abinesh Nadarajan, Shubham Nitin Shelke, Pankaj Mohite, Badal Taqdir Singh, Aditya Tushar Shinde, Fazel Atrachali, Mohammad Esmaeil Nabibakhsh, Alankar Kaluram Patil, Rakesh Bhalle Ram, Balasaheb Shahaji Jadhav, Harsh Mahesh Lad, and D Mahindaprasad.
Fazel Atrachali is likely to captain the Puneri Paltan team in PKL 9. Before the new season gets underway on October 7, here's a look at Pune's predicted playing seven:
Puneri Paltan Raiders - Mohit Goyat, Aslam Inamdar and Mohammad Nabibakhsh
Pune released their captain Nitin Tomar and star raider Rahul Chaudhari from the team ahead of the PKL Auction 2022. They retained youngsters Aslam Inamdar and Mohit Goyat, who impressed in season eight. Aslam scored 169 raid points in 23 matches, while Mohit earned 187 points in 21 games.
Both Aslam and Mohit are likely to shoulder Pune's raiding responsibilities in season nine as well. They have a new partner in Iranian all-rounder Mohammad Nabibakhsh. After playing two seasons for the Bengal Warriors, Nabibakhsh will don the Pune jersey in PKL this year.
The Iranian star is a raiding all-rounder who has scored 230 points in 43 matches so far. Nabibakhsh has two Super 10s and one High 5 to his name.
Puneri Paltan defenders - Sombir Gulia, Fazel Atrachali, Sanket Sawant and Abinesh Nadarajan
Paltan's defense played an integral role in the team's journey to the playoffs last season, which is why the team management retained a majority of their defenders from last season. They let go of corner defenders Baldev Singh and Vishal Bhardwaj, but roped in Fazel Atrachali at the auction.
Fazel is the most successful foreign player in PKL history. He has earned 372 points in 125 matches, with 368 of them coming as a defender. The Iranian left-corner defender has registered 23 High 5s in his career so far.
Sanket Sawant and Abinesh Nadarajan are likely to be the two cover defenders for Pune. Last season, left-cover defender Sawant scored 26 tackle points, while Abinesh earned 48 points in 22 matches.
Sombir Gulia was retained by the team ahead of the Pro Kabaddi 2022 Auction. He played in the right corner position last season and earned 61 points in just 19 matches. The corner defense duo of Sombir and Fazel Atrachali will give sleepless nights to the opposition raiders in PKL 9.
Puneri Paltan Predicted Playing 7 - Sombir Gulia (Right Corner), Fazel Atrachali (Left Corner), Mohit Goyat (Right In), Aslam Inamdar (Left In), Abinesh Nadarajan (Right Cover), Sanket Sawant (Left Cover) and Mohammad Nabibakhsh (Center).
