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Former Pro Kabaddi League champions Bengal Warriors have assembled a strong squad for the PKL 10 season. The Kolkata-based franchise re-signed their star raider Maninder Singh by using the FBM card at the player auction.
They also added the likes of Nitin Rawal and Akshay Kumar to the squad besides re-signing Shrikant Jadhav and Shubham Shinde. The Warriors surprisingly let go of veteran defender Girish Maruti Ernak, who was among the top performers for the franchise in PKL 9.
Overall, Bengal have ticked all the boxes on paper. The team's left cover defender Akshay Bodake has been ruled out of Pro Kabaddi 2023 due to an injury. The Bengal Warriors are expected to sign a replacement soon. Here is the rest of their squad:
Vaibhav Bhausaheb Garje, Shubham Shinde, Nitin Rawal, Bhoir Akshay Bharat, Akshay Kumar, Vishwas S, Nitin Kumar, Aslam Saja Mohamed Thambi, R Guhan, Suyog Baban Gaikar, Parshant Kumar, Maharudra Garje, Aditya Shinde, Shreyas Umbardand, Dipak Arjun Shinde, Maninder Singh, Shrikant Jadhav and Chai-Ming Chang.
Bengal Warriors will start their PKL 10 campaign against Bengaluru Bulls on December 4. Before the Kolkata-based franchise takes the mat for the first time in Pro Kabaddi 2023, here's a SWOT analysis of the team.
Strengths - Strong raiding unit
Bengal Warriors have the 'mighty' Maninder Singh in their squad. The Kolkata-based franchise raised a few eyebrows when they let go of their captain before the PKL 2023 Auction. They re-signed him at the auction for a whopping ₹2.12 crore.
Maninder has been one of the most consistent raiders in PKL since Season 5. The tall raider has regularly finished with around 200 points per season. He will have the back of Shrikant Jadhav in the raiding unit.
Jadhav has scored 642 points in 120 matches of his PKL career. Vishwas S, who has had stints with Puneri Paltan and Patna Pirates in the past, will likely be the third raider in the starting seven.
Weaknesses - Left side of defense might be an issue for Bengal Warriors
As mentioned earlier, the Warriors have lost their left cover defender Akshay Bodake to injury. The only other specialist left cover defender present in the squad is Shreyas Umbardand, who has never played in the PKL before.
Bengal Warriors can ask all-rounder Nitin Rawal to play at left cover instead of left corner, but then, the next best left corner option is Akshay Kumar, who has played only seven games before. Hence, Bengal's left side defense might be an issue.
Opportunities - Big chance for Taiwanese raider Chai-Ming Chang
Taiwan surprised kabaddi fans by winning the bronze medal in the men's kabaddi event at the Asian Games 2023. The Asian country showed glimpses of becoming the next top team in kabaddi.
Courtesy of Taiwan's impressive display, the team's raider Chai-Ming Chang earned a deal from PKL franchise Bengal Warriors. It will be interesting to see if Chang can perform like Jang Kun Lee for Bengal.
Threats - Spending ₹2.12 crore for 1 player
Fans have observed that the teams which spend big on just one player end up in the bottom half of the points table in the PKL. This year, the PKL teams received a total of ₹5 crore to form a squad. Bengal used ₹2.12 crore (close to 43% of auction purse) for just one player.
Naturally, the rest of the squad was impacted due to that decision. Had Bengal spent around ₹1 crore for their lead raider, they could have used the rest of the funds to form a stronger defense. The decision to spend so much on one player can hurt Bengal a lot in the long run.
