Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Five reasons why Haryana Steelers can claim the trophy

The Pro Kabaddi League is all set for its biggest ever edition with the fifth installment scheduled to begin later this month.

The season will span 10 states of India and go on for a good three months with the penultimate encounter taking place in the city of Chennai on the 28th of October.

But why is the season longer this time around? Well, this can be attributed to the entry of four new teams into the kabaddi fold in the likes of Haryana Steelers, UP Yoddhas, Tamil Thalaivas and Gujarat Fortune Giants in addition to the eight original teams.

Thus, viewers of the sport will witness more than 230 players taking the battle to one another on the kabaddi mat in almost 140 matches that will take place throughout the season.

One of the teams in the fray is Haryana Steelers, owned by the JSW Group, who made some valuable buys at the player auctions held in May. The team's think tank went about their business in a cunning manner, not spending the big bucks but fetching the services of key players to build a balanced squad.

The team definitely possess the ability to lay their hands on the coveted trophy in their very first season and here are five reasons why we at Sportskeeda think they can go all the way.

#1 Best corner defenders

The team chose 30-year-old Surender Nada as their Priority Pick before the actual auctions thus securing the left corner position. At the auctions, they shelled out Rs. 46.50 lakhs and recruited Mohit Chhillar, thereby establishing a firm force at the right corner position.

These two are arguably the best corner defenders in the recent history of the sport and when they work in tandem, can be menacing. This has been evident in the past four seasons of PKL, wherein the two first played together at U Mumba, then the Bengaluru Bulls and will now carry on their partnership for the Haryana Steelers.

Their ability to thrive together in tough situations was also showcased at the Kabaddi World Cup last October, and thus the two will play a vital role in the team's fortunes in the fifth edition.

#2 Experienced coach

Ranbir Singh Khokhar will be assisted by Srinivas Reddy for Haryana Steelers

The JSW owners roped in Ranbir Singh Khokhar as the gaffer of the side before the auctions and thus his tactics and acumen helped them build an able team before taking to the mat.

With 35 years of experience under his belt and two successful Asian Games outings with the Indian national team, Ranbir Singh Khokhar was the ideal candidate for the job.

The tactician in him was on display when he was quoted as saying to TFG, "Our team has a right mixture of experienced and promising players. The competition is going to very challenging with 12 teams and our sole aim will be to qualify for the playoffs. How we perform in the initial stage will help determine our strategy for the rest of the event."

#3 A mix of young and veteran raiders

Wazir Singh will be responsible for guiding the young raiders on the mat

The team have a variety of raiders to entrust the attacking responsibilities with on the match days, including Deepak Dahiya, Surjeet Singh, and Prashant Rai.

Dahiya offered glimpses of his skills in the past seasons where he amassed 74 raid points from the 26 matches he featured.

Surjeet Singh is a livewire on the mat if he gets going, a rampant raider who has the ability to spearhead the attack for the Steelers. He will look to increase his tally of 101 raid points off 22 matches, in the fifth edition.

Guiding the young guns on the mat will be the experienced campaigner Wazir, who will be looking to make a strong comeback post his sporadic appearances in the last couple of seasons. When speaking to Firstpost, Mohit Chhillar was quoted as saying, "Wazir Singh has been a top player. I think he will be even more motivated after missing out on the last two seasons, and perhaps not many teams would pay a lot of attention to him. So he is going to be a trump card for us."

#4 Picking up the key foreigners

Khomsan Thongkam had a good outing at the Kabaddi World Cup last year

The think tank procured the services of Khomsan Thongkam, the captain of the Thailand national team, who had a great outing at the World Cup last year wherein he finished with 56 raid points to his credit, second only to India's Ajay Thakur.

In addition to him, there is also the presence of all-rounder, David Mosambayi from Kenya, who also had a pretty good stint at the World Cup, amassing 38 raid points and finishing 7th on the leaderboard.

#5 Local Support

The Steelers will benefit from the huge fan base in Haryana

Haryana is the hotbed of kabaddi in India, and Sonepat is a factory that churns out quality kabaddi players each year. Thus, the support and loyalty that the team will garner from the native crowd will be immense. What also works in the team's favour is the fact that most of the key players also hail from Haryana.

This will surely boost the morale and the confidence of the players. Mohit Chillar, in his interview with Firstpost, said, "In Haryana, people are just crazy about kabaddi. When the (Pro Kabaddi) matches will happen in Sonipat, with all the players playing, it's going to be quite an atmosphere. I don't know how everyone will get a chance to watch the matches. Even the capacity of 10,000 is not going to be enough."